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Winston Churchill

"Churchill" redirects here. For other uses, see Churchill (disambiguation) and Winston Churchill (disambiguation).
The Right Honourable
Sir Winston Churchill
KG OM CH TD DL FRS RA
Three-quarter length portrait photograph of Churchill, 67, wearing a suit, standing and holding into the back of a chair
The Roaring Lion, 1941
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office
26 October 1951 – 5 April 1955
Monarchs	
George VI
Elizabeth II
Deputy	Anthony Eden
Preceded by	Clement Attlee
Succeeded by	Anthony Eden
In office
10 May 1940 – 26 July 1945
Monarch	George VI
Deputy	Clement Attlee (de facto; 1942–1945)
Preceded by	Neville Chamberlain
Succeeded by	Clement Attlee
Senior political offices
Ministerial offices 1939‍–‍1952
Ministerial offices 1908‍–‍1929
Parliamentary offices
Personal details
Born	30 November 1874
Blenheim, Oxfordshire, England
Died	24 January 1965 (aged 90)
Hyde Park Gate, London, England
Resting place	St Martin's Church, Bladon, Oxfordshire
Political party	Conservative (1900–1904, 1924–1964)
Other political
affiliations	Liberal (1904–1924)
Constitutionalist (1924)
Spouse	Clementine Hozier ​(m. 1908)​
Children	5, including Diana, Randolph, Sarah and Mary
Parents	
Lord Randolph Churchill
Jeanette "Jennie" Jerome
Education	
Harrow School
Royal Military College, Sandhurst
Occupation	
Historianpainterpoliticianmilitary officerwriter
Civilian awards	Full list
Signature	
Military service
Branch/service	
British Army
Territorial Army (from 1902)
Years of service	1893–1924
Rank	Colonel
(Full list)
Unit	
4th Queen's Own Hussars
Malakand Field Force
21st Lancers
South African Light Horse
Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars
Grenadier Guards
Royal Scots Fusiliers
Commands	6th bn, Royal Scots Fusiliers
Battles/wars	
North-West Frontier
Mahdist War
Second Boer War (POW)
First World War
Military awards	Full list
Winston Churchill's voice
Duration: 10 minutes and 11 seconds.10:11
Churchill's "Be ye men of valour" speech
Recorded 19 May 1940
	
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Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill[a] (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (during the Second World War) and again from 1951 to 1955. For some 62 of the years between 1900 and 1964, he was a member of parliament (MP) and represented a total of five constituencies over that time. Ideologically an adherent to economic liberalism and imperialism, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924.

Of mixed English and American parentage, Churchill was born in Oxfordshire into the wealthy, aristocratic Spencer family. He joined the British Army in 1895 and saw action in British India, the Mahdist War and the Second Boer War, gaining fame as a war correspondent and writing books about his campaigns. Elected a Conservative MP in 1900, he defected to the Liberals in 1904. In H. H. Asquith's Liberal government, Churchill was president of the Board of Trade and later Home Secretary, championing prison reform and workers' social security. As First Lord of the Admiralty during the First World War he oversaw the Gallipoli campaign; but, after it proved a disaster, was demoted to Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He resigned in November 1915 and joined the Royal Scots Fusiliers on the Western Front for six months. In 1917, he returned to government under David Lloyd George and served successively as Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for Air, and Secretary of State for the Colonies, overseeing the Anglo-Irish Treaty and British foreign policy in the Middle East. After two years out of Parliament, he was Chancellor of the Exchequer in Stanley Baldwin's Conservative government, returning sterling in 1925 to the gold standard, depressing the UK economy.

Out of government during his so-called "wilderness years" in the 1930s, Churchill took the lead in calling for rearmament to counter the threat of militarism in Nazi Germany. At the outbreak of the Second World War he was re-appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. In May 1940, he became prime minister, succeeding Neville Chamberlain. Churchill formed a national government and oversaw British involvement in the Allied war effort against the Axis powers, resulting in victory in 1945. After the Conservatives' defeat in the 1945 general election, he became Leader of the Opposition. Amid the developing Cold War with the Soviet Union, he publicly warned of an "iron curtain" of Soviet influence in Europe and promoted European unity. Between his terms, he wrote several books recounting his experience during the war. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953. He lost the 1950 election but was returned to office in 1951. His second term was preoccupied with foreign affairs, especially Anglo-American relations and preservation of what remained of the British Empire, with India no longer a part of it. Domestically, his government's priority was their extensive housebuilding programme, in which they were successful. In declining health, Churchill resigned in 1955, remaining an MP until 1964. Upon his death in 1965, he was given a state funeral.

One of the 20th century's most significant figures, Churchill remains popular in the UK and the rest of the Anglosphere. He is generally viewed as a victorious wartime leader who played an integral role in defending liberal democracy against the spread of fascism. A staunch imperialist, he has sometimes been criticised for comments on race, in addition to some wartime decisions such as area bombing. Historians rank Churchill as one of the greatest British prime ministers.

Early life
Main article: Early life of Winston Churchill
Childhood and schooling: 1874–1895

Jennie Spencer Churchill with her two sons, Jack (left) and Winston (right) in 1889
Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born on 30 November 1874 at his family's ancestral home, Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.[2] On his father's side, he was a member of the aristocracy as a descendant of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough.[3] His father, Lord Randolph Churchill, representing the Conservative Party, had been elected member of parliament (MP) for Woodstock in February 1874.[4] His mother was Jennie, Lady Randolph Churchill, a daughter of Leonard Jerome, an American businessman.[5]

In 1876, Churchill's paternal grandfather, John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough, was appointed Viceroy of Ireland. Randolph became his private secretary and the family relocated to Dublin.[6] Winston's brother, Jack, was born there in 1880.[7] For much of the 1880s, Randolph and Jennie were effectively estranged,[8] and the brothers cared for by their nanny, Elizabeth Everest.[9] When she died in 1895, Churchill wrote "she had been my dearest and most intimate friend during the whole of the twenty years I had lived".[10]

Churchill began boarding school at St George's in Ascot, Berkshire, aged 7, but he was not academic and his behaviour was poor.[11] In 1884, he transferred to Brunswick School in Hove, where his academic performance improved.[12] In April 1888, aged 13, he passed the entrance exam for Harrow School.[13] His father wanted him to prepare for a military career, so his last three years at Harrow were in the army form.[14] After two unsuccessful attempts to gain admittance to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he succeeded.[15] He was accepted as a cadet in the cavalry, starting in September 1893.[16] His father died in January 1895.[17]

Cuba, India, and Sudan: 1895–1899

Churchill in the military dress uniform of the 4th Queen's Own Hussars at Aldershot in 1895[18]
In February 1895, Churchill was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 4th Queen's Own Hussars regiment of the British Army, based at Aldershot.[19] Eager to witness military action, he used his mother's influence to get posted to a war zone.[20] In the autumn, he and friend Reggie Barnes, went to observe the Cuban War of Independence and became involved in skirmishes after joining Spanish troops attempting to suppress independence fighters.[21] Churchill sent reports to the Daily Graphic in London.[22] He proceeded to New York and wrote to his mother about "what an extraordinary people the Americans are!"[23] With the Hussars, he went to Bombay in October 1896.[24] Based in Bangalore, he was in India for 19 months, visiting Calcutta and joining expeditions to Hyderabad and the North West Frontier.[25]

In India, Churchill began a self-education project,[26] reading widely including Plato, Edward Gibbon, Charles Darwin and Thomas Babington Macaulay.[27] The books were sent by his mother, with whom he shared frequent correspondence. To learn about politics, he asked her to send him copies of The Annual Register, the political almanack.[28] In an 1898 letter, he referred to his beliefs, saying: "I do not accept the Christian or any other form of religious belief".[29] Churchill had been christened in the Church of England[30] but underwent a virulently anti-Christian phase in his youth,[31] and as an adult was an agnostic.[32] In another letter to a cousin, he referred to religion as "a delicious narcotic" and expressed a preference for Protestantism over Roman Catholicism because he felt it "a step nearer Reason".[33]

Interested in parliamentary affairs,[34] Churchill declared himself "a Liberal in all but name", adding he could never endorse the Liberal Party's support for Irish home rule.[35] Instead, he allied himself to the Tory democracy wing of the Conservatives and on a visit home, gave his first speech for the party's Primrose League at Claverton Down.[36] Mixing reformist and conservative perspectives, he supported the promotion of secular, non-denominational education while opposing women's suffrage.[37]

Churchill volunteered to join Bindon Blood's Malakand Field Force in its campaign against Mohmand rebels in the Swat Valley of north-west India. Blood accepted on condition he was assigned as a journalist, the beginning of Churchill's writing career.[38] He returned to Bangalore in October 1897 and wrote his first book, The Story of the Malakand Field Force, which received positive reviews.[39] He wrote his only work of fiction, Savrola, a Ruritanian romance.[40] To keep occupied, Churchill embraced writing as what Roy Jenkins calls his "whole habit", especially through his career when he was out of office. Writing was his safeguard against recurring depression, which he referred to as his "black dog".[41]

Using London contacts, Churchill got attached to General Herbert Kitchener's campaign in the Sudan as a 21st Lancers subaltern while, working as a journalist for The Morning Post.[42] After participating in one of the British Army's last cavalry charges in the Battle of Omdurman in September 1898, the 21st Lancers were stood down.[43] In October, Churchill returned to England and began writing The River War about the campaign; it was published in 1899. He decided to leave the army[44] as he was critical of Kitchener's actions, particularly the unmerciful treatment of enemy wounded and his desecration of Muhammad Ahmad's tomb.[45]

On 2 December 1898, Churchill embarked for India to settle his military business and complete his resignation. He spent much time playing polo, the only ball sport in which he was ever interested. Having left the Hussars, he sailed from Bombay on 20 March 1899, determined to launch a career in politics.[46]

Politics and South Africa: 1899–1901

Churchill in 1900 around the time of his first election to Parliament[47]
Churchill spoke at Conservative meetings[48] and was selected as one of the party's two candidates for the June 1899 Oldham by-election.[49] While campaigning, he referred to himself as "a Conservative and a Tory Democrat".[50] Although the seats had been held by the Conservatives, the result was a narrow Liberal victory.[51]

As a journalist for the Morning Post, Churchill anticipated the outbreak of the Second Boer War between Britain and the Boer republics, leading him to sail to South Africa.[52][53] In October, he travelled to the conflict zone near Ladysmith, which was under siege by Boer troops, and then headed to Colenso.[54] At the Battle of Chieveley, his train was derailed by Boer artillery shelling, and he was captured as a prisoner of war (POW) and interned in a POW camp in Pretoria.[55] In December, Churchill escaped and evaded his captors by stowing aboard freight trains and hiding in a mine. He made it to safety in Portuguese East Africa.[56] His escape attracted much publicity.[57]

In January 1900, Churchill briefly rejoined the army as a lieutenant in the South African Light Horse regiment, joining Redvers Buller's fight to relieve the Siege of Ladysmith and take Pretoria.[58] He was among the first British troops into both places. With his cousin Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough, he demanded and received the surrender of 52 Boer prison camp guards.[59] Throughout the war, he publicly chastised anti-Boer prejudices, calling for them to be treated with "generosity and tolerance",[60] and afterwards urged the British to be magnanimous in victory.[61] In July, having resigned his lieutenancy, he returned to Britain. His Morning Post dispatches had been published as London to Ladysmith via Pretoria and sold well.[62]

Churchill rented a flat in London's Mayfair, using it as his base for six years. He stood again as a Conservative candidate at Oldham in the October 1900 general election, securing a narrow victory to become a Member of Parliament aged 25.[63] In the same month, he published Ian Hamilton's March, a book about his South African experiences,[64][65] which became the focus of a lecture tour in November through Britain, America, and Canada. Members of Parliament were unpaid and the tour was a financial necessity. In America, Churchill met Mark Twain, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt, who he did not get on with.[66] In spring 1901, he gave lectures in Paris, Madrid, and Gibraltar.[67]

Conservative MP: 1901–1904

Churchill in 1904 when he "crossed the floor"
In February 1901, Churchill took his seat in the House of Commons, where his maiden speech gained widespread coverage.[68] He associated with a group of Conservatives known as the Hughligans,[69] but was critical of the Conservative government on various issues, especially increases in army funding. He believed additional military expenditure should go to the navy.[70] This upset the Conservative front bench but was supported by Liberals, with whom he increasingly socialised, particularly Liberal Imperialists like H. H. Asquith.[71] Churchill later wrote that he "drifted steadily to the left".[72] He privately considered "the gradual creation by an evolutionary process of a Democratic or Progressive wing to the Conservative Party",[73] or alternately a "Central Party" to unite the Conservatives and Liberals.[74]

By 1903, there was division between Churchill and the Conservatives, largely because he opposed their promotion of protectionism. As a free trader, he helped found the Free Food League.[22] Churchill sensed that the animosity of party members would prevent him gaining a Cabinet position under a Conservative government. The Liberal Party was attracting growing support, and so his defection in 1904 may have been influenced by ambition.[75] He increasingly voted with the Liberals.[76] For example, he opposed an increase in military expenditure,[77] supported a Liberal bill to restore legal rights to trade unions,[76] and opposed the introduction of import tariffs.[78] Arthur Balfour's government announced protectionist legislation in October 1903.[79] Two months later, incensed by Churchill's criticism of the government, the Oldham Conservative Association informed him it would not support his candidature at the next election.[80]

In May 1904, Churchill opposed the government's proposed Aliens Bill, designed to curb Jewish immigration.[81] He stated that the bill would "appeal to insular prejudice against foreigners, to racial prejudice against Jews, and to labour prejudice against competition" and expressed himself in favour of "the old tolerant and generous practice of free entry and asylum to which this country has so long adhered and from which it has so greatly gained".[81] On 31 May 1904, he crossed the floor to sit as a member of the Liberal Party.[82]

Liberal MP: 1904–1908
Main article: Winston Churchill's Liberal Party years, 1904–1924

Churchill and German Kaiser Wilhelm II during a military manoeuvre near Breslau, Silesia, in 1906
As a Liberal, Churchill attacked government policy and gained a reputation as a radical under the influences of John Morley and David Lloyd George.[22] In December 1905, Balfour resigned as prime minister and King Edward VII invited the Liberal leader Henry Campbell-Bannerman to replace him.[83] Hoping to secure a working majority, Campbell-Bannerman called a general election in January 1906, which the Liberals won in a massive landslide.[84] Churchill won the Manchester North West seat,[85] and his biography of his father was published,[86] for which he received an advance payment of £8,000.[87] It was generally well received.[88] The first biography of Churchill himself, written by the Liberal MacCallum Scott, was also published around this time.[89]

In the new government, Churchill became Under-Secretary of State for the Colonial Office, a junior ministerial position he had requested.[90] He worked beneath the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Victor Bruce, 9th Earl of Elgin,[91] and took Edward Marsh as his secretary; Marsh remained his secretary for 25 years.[92] Churchill's first task was helping to draft a constitution for the Transvaal;[93] and he helped oversee the formation of a government in the Orange River Colony.[94] In dealing with southern Africa, he sought to ensure equality between the British and Boers.[95] He announced a gradual phasing out of the use of Chinese indentured labourers in South Africa; he and the government decided a sudden ban would cause too much upset and might damage the colony's economy.[96] He expressed concerns about the relations between European settlers and the black African population; after the Zulu launched their Bambatha Rebellion in Natal, Churchill complained about the "disgusting butchery of the natives" by Europeans.[97]

Asquith government: 1908–1915
Main article: Winston Churchill's Liberal Party years, 1904–1924
President of the Board of Trade: 1908–1910

Churchill and his fiancée Clementine Hozier shortly before their marriage in 1908
With Campbell-Bannerman terminally ill, Asquith became prime minister in April 1908. He appointed Churchill as President of the Board of Trade.[98] Aged 33, Churchill was the youngest Cabinet member since 1866.[99] Newly appointed Cabinet ministers were legally obliged to seek re-election at a by-election. On 24 April, Churchill lost the Manchester North West by-election to the Conservative candidate by 429 votes.[100] On 9 May, the Liberals stood him in the safe seat of Dundee, where he won comfortably.[101]

Churchill proposed marriage to Clementine Hozier; they were married on 12 September 1908 at St Margaret's, Westminster and honeymooned in Baveno, Venice, and Veveří Castle in Moravia.[102][103][104] They lived at 33 Eccleston Square, London, and their first daughter, Diana, was born in 1909.[105][106] The success of their marriage was important to Churchill's career as Clementine's unbroken affection provided him with a secure and happy background.[22]

One of Churchill's first tasks as a minister was to arbitrate in an industrial dispute among ship-workers and employers, on the River Tyne.[107] He afterwards established a Standing Court of Arbitration to deal with industrial disputes,[108] establishing a reputation as a conciliator.[109] He worked with Lloyd George to champion social reform.[110] He promoted what he called a "network of State intervention and regulation" akin to that in Germany.[111]

Continuing Lloyd George's work,[22] Churchill introduced the Mines Eight Hours Bill, which prohibited miners from working more than an eight-hour day.[112] In 1909, he introduced the Trade Boards Bill, creating Trade Boards which could prosecute exploitative employers. Passing with a large majority, it established the principle of a minimum wage and the right to have meal breaks.[113] In May 1909, he proposed the Labour Exchanges Bill to establish over 200 Labour Exchanges through which the unemployed would be assisted in finding employment.[114] He promoted the idea of an unemployment insurance scheme, which would be part-funded by the state.[115]

To ensure funding for their reforms, Lloyd George and Churchill denounced Reginald McKenna's policy of naval expansion,[116] refusing to believe war with Germany was inevitable.[117] As Chancellor, Lloyd George presented his "People's Budget" on 29 April 1909, calling it a war budget to eliminate poverty. With Churchill as his closest ally,[22] Lloyd George proposed unprecedented taxes on the rich to fund Liberal welfare programmes.[118] The budget was vetoed by the Conservative peers who dominated the House of Lords.[119] His social reforms under threat, Churchill became president of the Budget League,[22] and warned that upper-class obstruction could anger working-class Britons and lead to class war.[120] The government called the January 1910 general election, which resulted in a Liberal victory; Churchill retained his seat at Dundee.[121] He proposed abolition of the House of Lords in a cabinet memo, suggesting it be succeeded by a unicameral system, or smaller second chamber that lacked an in-built advantage for the Conservatives.[122] In April, the Lords relented and the People's Budget passed.[123] Churchill continued to campaign against the House of Lords and assisted passage of the Parliament Act 1911 which reduced and restricted its powers.[22]

Home Secretary: 1910–1911
In February 1910, Churchill was promoted to Home Secretary, giving him control over the police and prison services;[124] he implemented a prison reform programme.[125] Measures included a distinction between criminal and political prisoners, with rules for the latter being relaxed.[126] There were educational innovations like the establishment of libraries,[127] and a requirement to stage entertainments four times a year.[128] The rules on solitary confinement were relaxed,[129] and Churchill proposed abolition of automatic imprisonment of those who failed to pay fines.[130] Imprisonment of people aged between 16 and 21 was abolished except for the most serious offences.[131] Churchill reduced ("commuted") 21 of the 43 death ("capital") sentences passed while he was Home Secretary.[132]

A major domestic issue was women's suffrage. Churchill supported giving women the vote, but would only back a bill to that effect if it had majority support from the (male) electorate.[133] His proposed solution was a referendum, but this found no favour with Asquith and women's suffrage remained unresolved until 1918.[134] Many suffragettes believed Churchill was a committed opponent,[135] and targeted his meetings for protest.[134] In November 1910, the suffragist Hugh Franklin attacked Churchill with a whip; Franklin was imprisoned for six weeks.[135]


Churchill (second left) photographed at the Siege of Sidney Street
In November 1910, Churchill had to deal with the Tonypandy riots, in which coal miners in the Rhondda Valley violently protested against working conditions.[136] The Chief Constable of Glamorgan requested troops to help police quell the rioting. Churchill, learning that the troops were already travelling, allowed them to go as far as Swindon and Cardiff, but blocked their deployment; he was concerned their use lead to bloodshed. Instead he sent 270 London police, who were not equipped with firearms, to assist.[136] As the riots continued, he offered the protesters an interview with the government's chief industrial arbitrator, which they accepted.[137] Privately, Churchill regarded the mine owners and striking miners as "very unreasonable".[135] The Times and other media outlets accused him of being soft on the rioters;[138] in contrast, many in the Labour Party, which was linked to the trade unions, regarded him as too heavy-handed.[139] Churchill incurred the long-term suspicion of the labour movement.[22]

Asquith called a general election in December 1910, and the Liberals were re-elected with Churchill secure in Dundee.[140] In January 1911, Churchill became involved in the Siege of Sidney Street; three Latvian burglars had killed police officers and hidden in a house in the East End of London, surrounded by police.[141] Churchill stood with the police though he did not direct their operation.[142] After the house caught fire, he told the fire brigade not to proceed into the house because of the threat posed by the armed men. Afterwards, two of the burglars were found dead.[142] Although he faced criticism for his decision, he said he "thought it better to let the house burn down rather than spend good British lives in rescuing those ferocious rascals".[143]

In March 1911, Churchill introduced the second reading of the Coal Mines Bill; when implemented, it imposed stricter safety standards.[144] He formulated the Shops Bill to improve working conditions of shop workers; it faced opposition from shop owners and only passed in a much emasculated form.[145] In April, Lloyd George introduced the first health and unemployment insurance legislation, the National Insurance Act 1911, which Churchill had been instrumental in drafting.[145] In May, Clementine gave birth to their second child, Randolph, named after Winston's father.[146] In response to escalating civil strife in 1911, Churchill sent troops into Liverpool to quell protesting dockers and rallied against a national railway strike.[147]

During the Agadir Crisis of April 1911, when there was a threat of war between France and Germany, Churchill suggested an alliance with France and Russia to safeguard the independence of Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands to counter possible German expansionism.[148] The Crisis had a profound effect on Churchill and he altered his views about the need for naval expansion.[149]

First Lord of the Admiralty

As First Lord of the Admiralty, Churchill's London residency was Admiralty House.
In October 1911, Asquith appointed Churchill First Lord of the Admiralty,[150] and he took up official residence at Admiralty House.[151] He created a naval war staff[22] and, over the next two and a half years, focused on naval preparation, visiting naval stations and dockyards, seeking to improve morale, and scrutinising German naval developments.[152] After Germany passed its 1912 Naval Law to increase warship production, Churchill vowed that for every new German battleship, Britain would build two.[153] He invited Germany to engage in a mutual de-escalation, but this was refused.[154]

Churchill pushed for higher pay and greater recreational facilities for naval staff,[155] more submarines,[156] and a renewed focus on the Royal Naval Air Service, encouraging them to experiment with how aircraft could be used for military purposes.[157] He coined the term "seaplane" and ordered 100 to be constructed.[158] Some Liberals objected to his level of naval expenditure; in December 1913 he threatened to resign if his proposal for 4 new battleships in 1914–15 was rejected.[159] In June 1914, he convinced the House of Commons to authorise the government purchase of a 51% share in the profits of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, to secure oil access for the navy.[160]

The central issue in Britain was Irish Home Rule and, in 1912, Asquith's government introduced the Home Rule Bill.[161] Churchill supported it and urged Ulster Unionists to accept it as he opposed the Partition of Ireland.[162] Concerning the possibility of partition, Churchill stated: "Whatever Ulster's right may be, she cannot stand in the way of the whole of the rest of Ireland. Half a province cannot impose a permanent veto on the nation. Half a province cannot obstruct forever the reconciliation between the British and Irish democracies".[163] Speaking in the House of Commons on 16 February 1922, Churchill said: "What Irishmen all over the world most desire is not hostility against this country, but the unity of their own".[163] Following a Cabinet decision, he boosted the naval presence in Ireland to deal with any Unionist uprising.[164] Seeking a compromise, Churchill suggested Ireland remain part of a federal UK, but this angered Liberals and Irish nationalists.[165]

As First Lord, Churchill was tasked with overseeing Britain's naval effort when the First World War began in August 1914.[166] The navy transported 120,000 troops to France and began a blockade of Germany's North Sea ports. Churchill sent submarines to the Baltic Sea to assist the Russian Navy and sent the Marine Brigade to Ostend, forcing a reallocation of German troops.[167] In September, Churchill assumed full responsibility for Britain's aerial defence.[168] On 7 October, Clementine gave birth to their third child, Sarah.[169] In October, Churchill visited Antwerp to observe Belgian defences against the besieging Germans and promised reinforcements.[170] Soon afterwards, Antwerp fell to the Germans and Churchill was criticised in the press.[171] He maintained that his actions had prolonged resistance and enabled the Allies to secure Calais and Dunkirk.[172] In November, Asquith called a War Council including Churchill.[173] Churchill set the development of the tank on the right track and financed its creation with Admiralty funds.[174]

Churchill was interested in the Middle Eastern theatre, and wanted to relieve pressure on the Russians in the Caucasus by staging attacks against Turkey in the Dardanelles. He hoped that the British could even seize Constantinople.[175] Approval was given and, in March 1915, an Anglo-French task force attempted a naval bombardment of Turkish defences. In April, the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, including the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), began its assault at Gallipoli.[176] Both campaigns failed and Churchill was held by many MPs, particularly Conservatives, to be responsible.[177] In May, Asquith agreed under parliamentary pressure to form an all-party coalition government, but the Conservatives' condition of entry was that Churchill must be removed from the Admiralty.[178] Churchill pleaded his case with Asquith and Conservative leader Bonar Law but had to accept demotion.[179]

Military service, 1915–1916
Main article: Winston Churchill's Liberal Party years, 1904–1924

Churchill commanding the 6th Battalion, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, 1916.
On 25 November 1915, Churchill resigned from the government, although he remained an MP. Asquith rejected his request to be appointed Governor-General of British East Africa.[180] Churchill decided to return to active service with the Army and was attached to the 2nd Grenadier Guards, on the Western Front.[181] In January 1916, he was temporarily promoted to lieutenant-colonel and given command of the 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers.[182][183] The battalion was moved to a sector of the Belgian Front near Ploegsteert.[184] For three months, they faced continual shelling, though no German offensive.[185] Churchill narrowly escaped death when, during a visit by his cousin the Duke of Marlborough, a large piece of shrapnel fell between them.[186] In May, the 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers were merged into the 15th Division. Churchill did not request a new command, instead securing permission to leave active service.[187] His temporary promotion ended on 16 May 1916, when he returned to the rank of major.[188]

Back in the House of Commons, Churchill spoke out on war issues, calling for conscription to be extended to the Irish, greater recognition of soldiers' bravery, and for the introduction of steel helmets.[189] It was in November 1916 that he penned "The greater application of mechanical power to the prosecution of an offensive on land", but it fell on deaf ears.[190] He was frustrated at being out of office, but was repeatedly blamed for the Gallipoli disaster by the pro-Conservative press.[191] Churchill argued his case before the Dardanelles Commission, whose report placed no blame on him personally for the campaign's failure.[192]

Lloyd George government: 1916–1922
Main article: Winston Churchill's Liberal Party years, 1904–1924
Minister of Munitions: 1917–1919
In October 1916, Asquith resigned as prime minister and was succeeded by Lloyd George who, in May 1917, sent Churchill to inspect the French war effort.[193] In July, Churchill was appointed Minister of Munitions.[194] He negotiated an end to a strike in munitions factories along the Clyde and increased munitions production.[195] In his October 1917 letter to his Cabinet colleagues, he penned the plan of attack for the next year, that would bring final victory to the Allies.[190] He ended a second strike, in June 1918, by threatening to conscript strikers into the army.[196] In the House of Commons, Churchill voted in support of the Representation of the People Act 1918, which gave some women the right to vote.[197] In November 1918, four days after the Armistice, Churchill's fourth child, Marigold, was born.[198]

Secretary of State for War and Air: 1919–1921

Churchill meets female workers at Georgetown's filling works near Glasgow in October 1918.
Lloyd George called a general election for 14 December 1918.[199] During the campaign, Churchill called for nationalisation of the railways, a control on monopolies, tax reform, and the creation of a League of Nations to prevent wars.[200] He was returned as MP for Dundee and, though the Conservatives won a majority, Lloyd George was retained as prime minister.[200] In January 1919, Lloyd George moved Churchill to the War Office as both Secretary of State for War and Secretary of State for Air.[201]

Churchill was responsible for demobilising the army,[202] though he convinced Lloyd George to keep a million men conscripted for the British Army of the Rhine.[203] Churchill was one of the few government figures who opposed harsh measures against Germany,[198] and he cautioned against demobilising the German Army, warning they might be needed as a bulwark against Soviet Russia.[204] He was outspoken against Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik government in Russia.[205] He initially supported using British troops to assist the anti-Bolshevik White forces in the Russian Civil War,[206] but soon recognised the people's desire to bring them home.[207] After the Soviets won the civil war, Churchill proposed a cordon sanitaire around the country.[208]

In the Irish War of Independence, he supported the use of the paramilitary Black and Tans to combat Irish revolutionaries.[209] After British troops in Iraq clashed with Kurdish rebels, Churchill authorised two squadrons to the area, proposing they be equipped with "poison gas" to be used to "inflict punishment upon recalcitrant natives without inflicting grave injury upon them", although this was never implemented.[210] He saw the occupation of Iraq as a drain on Britain and proposed, unsuccessfully, that the government should hand control back to Turkey.[211]

Secretary of State for the Colonies: 1921–1922
Churchill as Secretary of State for the Colonies during his visit to Mandatory Palestine, Tel Aviv, 1921.
Churchill as Secretary of State for the Colonies during his visit to Mandatory Palestine, Tel Aviv, 1921

Churchill's main home was Chartwell in Kent.
Churchill became Secretary of State for the Colonies in February 1921.[212] The following month, the first exhibit of his paintings took place in Paris, with Churchill exhibiting under a pseudonym.[212] In May, his mother died, followed in August by his daughter Marigold, from sepsis.[213] Churchill was haunted by Marigold's death for the rest of his life.[214]

Churchill was involved in negotiations with Sinn Féin leaders and helped draft the Anglo-Irish Treaty.[215] He was responsible for reducing the cost of occupying the Middle East,[212] and was involved in the installations of Faisal I of Iraq and Abdullah I of Jordan.[216] Churchill travelled to Mandatory Palestine where, as a supporter of Zionism, he refused an Arab Palestinian petition to prohibit Jewish migration.[217] He did allow temporary restrictions following the Jaffa riots.[218]

In September 1922, the Chanak Crisis erupted as Turkish forces threatened to occupy the Dardanelles neutral zone, which was policed by the British army based in Chanak. Churchill and Lloyd George favoured military resistance to any Turkish advance but the majority Conservatives in the coalition government opposed it. A political debacle ensued which resulted in the Conservative withdrawal from the government, precipitating the November 1922 general election.[22]

Also in September, Churchill's fifth and last child, Mary, was born, and in the same month he purchased Chartwell, in Kent, which became his family home.[219] In October 1922, he underwent an appendectomy. While he was in hospital, Lloyd George's coalition was dissolved. In the general election, Churchill lost his Dundee seat[220] to Edwin Scrymgeour, a prohibitionist candidate. Later, he wrote that he was "without an office, without a seat, without a party, and without an appendix".[221] He was elevated as one of 50 members of the Order of the Companions of Honour, as named in Lloyd George's 1922 Dissolution Honours list.[222]

Out of Parliament: 1922–1924
Main article: Winston Churchill's Liberal Party years, 1904–1924

Churchill with children Randolph and Diana in 1923
Churchill spent much of the next six months at the Villa Rêve d'Or near Cannes, where he devoted himself to painting and writing his memoirs.[223] He wrote an autobiographical history of the war, The World Crisis. The first volume was published in April 1923 and the rest over the next ten years.[220] After the 1923 general election was called, seven Liberal associations asked Churchill to stand as their candidate, and he selected Leicester West, but did not win.[224] A Labour government led by Ramsay MacDonald took power. Churchill had hoped they would be defeated by a Conservative-Liberal coalition.[225] He strongly opposed the MacDonald government's decision to loan money to Soviet Russia and feared the signing of an Anglo-Soviet Treaty.[226]

In March 1924, alienated by Liberal support for Labour, Churchill stood as an independent anti-socialist candidate in the Westminster Abbey by-election but was defeated.[227] In May, he addressed a Conservative meeting in Liverpool and declared there was no longer a place for the Liberal Party in politics. He said that Liberals must back the Conservatives to stop Labour and ensure "the successful defeat of socialism".[228] In July, he agreed with Conservative leader Stanley Baldwin that he would be selected as a Conservative candidate in the next general election, which was held on 29 October. Churchill stood at Epping, but described himself as a "Constitutionalist".[229] The Conservatives were victorious, and Baldwin formed the new government. Although Churchill had no background in finance or economics, Baldwin appointed him as Chancellor.[230]

Chancellor of the Exchequer: 1924–1929
Main article: Chancellorship of Winston Churchill
Becoming Chancellor on 6 November 1924, Churchill formally rejoined the Conservative Party.[231] As Chancellor, he intended to pursue his free trade principles in the form of laissez-faire economics, as under the Liberal social reforms.[231] In April 1925, he controversially, albeit reluctantly, restored the gold standard in his first budget, at its 1914 parity, against the advice of leading economists including John Maynard Keynes.[232] The return to gold is held to have caused deflation and resultant unemployment with a devastating impact on the coal industry.[233] Churchill presented five budgets in all to April 1929. Among his measures were reduction of the state pension age from 70 to 65; immediate provision of widow's pensions; reduction of military expenditure; income tax reductions and imposition of taxes on luxury items.[234]

During the General Strike of 1926, Churchill edited the British Gazette, the government's anti-strike propaganda newspaper.[235] After the strike ended, he acted as an intermediary between striking miners and their employers. He called for the introduction of a legally binding minimum wage.[236] In a House of Commons speech in 1926 Churchill made his feelings on the issue of Irish unity clear. He stated that Ireland should be united within itself but also "united to the British Empire."[237] In early 1927, Churchill visited Rome where he met Mussolini, whom he praised for his stand against Leninism.[238]

The "Wilderness Years": 1929–1939
Main article: Winston Churchill's "Wilderness" years, 1929–1939
Marlborough and the India Question: 1929–1932

Churchill meeting with film star Charlie Chaplin in 1929
In the 1929 general election, Churchill retained his Epping seat, but the Conservatives were defeated, and MacDonald formed his second Labour government.[239] Out of office, Churchill was prone to depression (his "black dog") but addressed this by writing.[240] He began work on Marlborough: His Life and Times, a biography of his ancestor John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough.[241][242] He had developed a reputation for being a heavy drinker, although Jenkins believes that was often exaggerated.[243]

Hoping that the Labour government could be ousted, he gained Baldwin's approval to work towards establishing a Conservative-Liberal coalition, although many Liberals were reluctant.[241] In October 1930, after his return from a trip to North America, Churchill published his autobiography, My Early Life, which sold well and was translated into multiple languages.[244] In January 1931, Churchill resigned from the Conservative Shadow Cabinet because Baldwin supported the government's decision to grant Dominion Status to India.[245] Churchill believed that enhanced home rule status would hasten calls for full independence.[246] He was particularly opposed to Mohandas Gandhi, whom he considered "a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir".[247] His views enraged Labour and Liberal opinion, though he was supported by many grassroot Conservatives.[248]

The October 1931 general election was a landslide victory for the Conservatives.[249] Churchill nearly doubled his majority in Epping, but was not given a ministerial position.[250] The Commons debated Dominion Status for India on 3 December and Churchill insisted on dividing the House, but this backfired as only 43 MPs supported him.[251] He embarked on a lecture tour of North America, hoping to recoup financial losses sustained in the Wall Street crash.[249][251] On 13 December, he was crossing Fifth Avenue in New York when he was knocked down by a car, suffering a head wound from which he developed neuritis.[252] To further his convalescence, he and Clementine took ship to Nassau for three weeks, but Churchill became depressed about his financial and political losses.[253] He returned to America in late January 1932 and completed most of his lectures before arriving home on 18 March.[253]

Having worked on Marlborough for much of 1932, Churchill in August decided to visit his ancestor's battlefields.[254] In Munich, he met Ernst Hanfstaengl, a friend of Hitler, who was then rising in prominence. Hanfstaengl tried to arrange a meeting between Churchill and Hitler, but Hitler was unenthusiastic: "What on earth would I talk to him about?"[255] Soon after visiting Blenheim, Churchill was affected by paratyphoid fever and spent two weeks at a sanatorium in Salzburg.[256] He returned to Chartwell on 25 September, still working on Marlborough. Two days later, he collapsed after a recurrence of paratyphoid which caused an ulcer to haemorrhage. He was taken to a London nursing home and remained there until late October.[257]

Warnings about Germany and the abdication crisis: 1933–1936
After Hitler came to power in January 1933, Churchill was quick to recognise the menace of such a regime, and expressed alarm that the British government had reduced air force spending, and warned that Germany would soon overtake Britain in air force production.[258][259] Armed with data provided clandestinely by senior civil servants, Desmond Morton and Ralph Wigram, Churchill was able to speak with authority about what was happening in Germany, especially the development of the Luftwaffe.[260] He spoke of his concerns in a radio broadcast in November 1934,[261] having denounced the intolerance and militarism of Nazism in the House of Commons.[262] While Churchill regarded Mussolini's regime as a bulwark against the threat of communist revolution, he opposed the Italian invasion of Ethiopia,[263] despite describing the country as a primitive, uncivilised nation.[264] He admired the exiled king of Spain Alfonso XIII and feared Communism was making inroads during the Spanish Civil War. He referred to Franco's army as the "anti-red movement", but later became critical of Franco as too close to Mussolini and Hitler.[265][266]

Between October 1933 and September 1938, the four volumes of Marlborough: His Life and Times were published and sold well.[267] In December 1934, the India Bill entered Parliament and was passed in February 1935. Churchill and 83 other Conservative MPs voted against it.[268] In June 1935, MacDonald resigned and was succeeded as prime minister by Baldwin.[263] Baldwin then led the Conservatives to victory in the 1935 general election; Churchill retained his seat, but was again left out of the government.[269] In January 1936, Edward VIII succeeded his father, George V, as monarch. His desire to marry an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson, caused the abdication crisis.[270] Churchill supported Edward and clashed with Baldwin on the issue.[271] Afterwards, although Churchill immediately pledged loyalty to George VI, he wrote that the abdication was "premature and probably quite unnecessary".[272]

Anti-appeasement: 1937–1939

Churchill and Neville Chamberlain, the chief proponent of appeasement
In May 1937, Baldwin resigned and was succeeded as prime minister by Neville Chamberlain. At first, Churchill welcomed Chamberlain's appointment but, in February 1938, matters came to a head after Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden resigned over Chamberlain's appeasement of Mussolini,[273] a policy which Chamberlain was extending towards Hitler.[274] In 1938, Churchill warned the government against appeasement and called for collective action to deter German aggression.[275][276] Following the Anschluss, Churchill spoke in the House of Commons:

A country like ours, possessed of immense territory and wealth, whose defence has been neglected, cannot avoid war by dilating upon its horrors, or even by a continuous display of pacific qualities, or by ignoring the fate of the victims of aggression elsewhere. War will be avoided, in present circumstances, only by the accumulation of deterrents against the aggressor.

— [277]
He began calling for a mutual defence pact among European states threatened by German expansionism, arguing this was the only way to halt Hitler.[278] In September, Germany mobilised to invade the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia.[279] Churchill visited Chamberlain and urged him to tell Germany that Britain would declare war if the Germans invaded Czechoslovak territory; Chamberlain was unwilling to do this.[280] On 30 September, Chamberlain signed the Munich Agreement, agreeing to allow German annexation of the Sudetenland. Speaking in the House of Commons on 5 October, Churchill called the agreement "a total and unmitigated defeat".[281][282][283] Following the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Churchill and his supporters called for the foundation of a national coalition. His popularity increased as a result.[22]

First Lord of the Admiralty: September 1939 to May 1940
Main article: Winston Churchill in the Second World War
Phoney War and the Norwegian Campaign
On 3 September 1939, the day Britain declared war on Germany, Chamberlain reappointed Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty and he joined Chamberlain's war cabinet.[284] Churchill was a highest-profile minister during the so-called "Phoney War". Churchill was ebullient after the Battle of the River Plate on 13 December 1939 and welcomed home the crews, congratulating them on "a brilliant sea fight".[285] On 16 February 1940, Churchill ordered Captain Philip Vian of the destroyer HMS Cossack to board the German supply ship Altmark in Norwegian waters freeing 299 British merchant seamen who had been captured by the Admiral Graf Spee. These actions, and his speeches, enhanced Churchill's reputation.[285] He was concerned about German naval activity in the Baltic and wanted to send a naval force, but this was soon changed to a plan, codenamed Operation Wilfred, to mine Norwegian waters and stop iron ore shipments from Narvik to Germany.[286] Due to disagreements, Wilfred was delayed until 8 April 1940, the day before the German invasion of Norway.[287]

Norway Debate and Chamberlain's resignation
Main article: Norway Debate

Churchill with Lord Halifax in 1938
After the Allies failed to prevent the German occupation of Norway, the Commons held a debate from 7 to 9 May on the government's conduct of the war. This became known as the Norway Debate, one of the most significant events in parliamentary history.[288] On the second day, the Labour opposition called for a division which was in effect a vote of no confidence in Chamberlain's government.[289] Churchill was called upon to wind up the debate, which placed him in the difficult position of having to defend the government without damaging his prestige.[290] Although the government won the vote, its majority was drastically reduced amid calls for a national government.[291]

Early on 10 May, German forces invaded Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands as a prelude to their assault on France.[292] Since the division vote, Chamberlain had been trying to form a coalition, but Labour declared on the Friday they would not serve under his leadership, although they would accept another Conservative. The only two candidates were Churchill and Lord Halifax, the Foreign Secretary. The matter had already been discussed at a meeting on the 9th between Chamberlain, Halifax, Churchill, and David Margesson, the government Chief Whip.[292] Halifax admitted he could not govern effectively as a member of the House of Lords, so Chamberlain advised the King to send for Churchill, who became prime minister.[293] Churchill later wrote of a profound sense of relief, as he now had authority over the whole scene. He believed his life so far had been "a preparation for this hour and for this trial".[294][295][296]

Prime Minister: 1940–45
Main article: Winston Churchill in the Second World War
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Winston Churchill's first premiership.
Dunkirk to Pearl Harbor: May 1940 to December 1941

Churchill takes aim with a Sten sub-machine gun in June 1941.
War ministry created
Main article: Churchill war ministry
In May, Churchill was still unpopular with many Conservatives and most of the Labour Party.[297] Chamberlain remained Conservative Party leader until October. By that time, Churchill had won over his doubters and his succession was a formality.[298] He began his premiership by forming a war cabinet: Chamberlain as Lord President of the Council, Labour leader Clement Attlee as Lord Privy Seal (later Deputy Prime Minister), Halifax as Foreign Secretary and Labour's Arthur Greenwood as a minister without portfolio. In practice, these five were augmented by the service chiefs and ministers who attended most meetings.[299][300] The cabinet changed in size and membership as the war progressed, a key appointment being the leading trades unionist Ernest Bevin as Minister of Labour and National Service.[301] In response to criticisms, Churchill created and assumed the position of Minister of Defence, making him the most powerful wartime prime minister in history.[302] He drafted outside experts into government to fulfil vital functions, especially on the Home Front. These included friends like Lord Beaverbrook and Frederick Lindemann, who became the government's scientific advisor.[303]

Resolve to fight on
Main article: 1940 British war cabinet crisis
At the end of May, with the British Expeditionary Force in retreat to Dunkirk and the Fall of France imminent, Halifax proposed the government should explore a peace settlement using the still-neutral Mussolini as an intermediary. There were high-level meetings from 26 to 28 May, including with the French premier Paul Reynaud.[304] Churchill's resolve was to fight on, even if France capitulated, but his position remained precarious until Chamberlain resolved to support him. Churchill had the full support of the two Labour members but knew he could not survive as prime minister if both Chamberlain and Halifax were against him. By gaining the support of his outer cabinet, Churchill outmanoeuvred Halifax and won Chamberlain over.[305]

Churchill succeeded as an orator despite being handicapped from childhood with a speech impediment. He had a lateral lisp and was unable to pronounce the letter s, verbalising it with a slur.[306] He worked on his pronunciation by repeating phrases designed to cure his problem with the sibilant "s". He was ultimately successful, turning the impediment into an asset, as when he called Hitler a "Nar-zee" (rhymes with "khazi"; emphasis on the "z"), rather than a Nazi ("ts").[307] His first speech as prime minister, delivered to the Commons on 13 May, was the "blood, toil, tears and sweat" speech.[308] Churchill made it plain to the nation that a long road lay ahead and that victory was the final goal:[309][310]

I would say to the House... that I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. You ask, what is our policy? I will say: it is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: it is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.

Churchill's use of rhetoric hardened public opinion against a peaceful resolution – Jenkins says Churchill's speeches were "an inspiration for the nation, and a catharsis for Churchill himself".[311]

Operation Dynamo and the Battle of France
The Dunkirk evacuation of 338,226 Allied servicemen, ended on 4 June when the French rearguard surrendered. The total was far in excess of expectations and gave rise to a popular view Dunkirk had been a miracle, even a victory.[312] Churchill himself referred to "a miracle of deliverance" in his "we shall fight on the beaches" speech to the Commons that afternoon. The speech ended on a note of defiance, with a clear appeal to the United States:[313][314]

We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the Old.

Germany initiated Fall Rot, in France, the following day, and Italy entered the war on the 10th.[315] The Wehrmacht occupied Paris on the 14th and completed their conquest of France on 25 June.[316] It was now inevitable that Hitler would attack and probably try to invade Great Britain. Faced with this, Churchill addressed the Commons on 18 June with one of his most famous speeches, ending with this peroration:[317][318][319]

What General Weygand called the "Battle of France" is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that if the British Commonwealth and Empire lasts for a thousand years, men will still say: "This was their finest hour".

Churchill ordered the commencement of the Western Desert campaign on 11 June, a response to the Italian declaration of war. This went well at first while Italy was the sole opposition and Operation Compass was a success. In early 1941, however, Mussolini requested German support. Hitler sent the Afrika Korps to Tripoli under Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel, who arrived not long after Churchill had halted Compass so he could reassign forces to Greece where the Balkans campaign was entering a critical phase.[320]

In other initiatives through June and July 1940, Churchill ordered the formation of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and Commandos. The SOE was ordered to promote and execute subversive activity in Nazi-occupied Europe, while the Commandos were charged with raids on military targets there. Hugh Dalton, the Minister of Economic Warfare, took political responsibility for the SOE and recorded that Churchill told him: "And now go and set Europe ablaze".[321]

Battle of Britain and the Blitz

Churchill walks through the ruins of Coventry Cathedral, 1941
On 20 August 1940, at the height of the Battle of Britain, Churchill addressed the Commons to outline the situation. In the middle of it, he made a statement that created a famous nickname for the RAF fighter pilots involved in the battle:[322][323]

The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

The Luftwaffe altered its strategy from 7 September 1940 and began the Blitz, which was intensive through October and November. Churchill's morale was high and told his private secretary John Colville, in November, he thought the threat of invasion was past.[324] He was confident Great Britain could hold its own, given the increase in output, but was realistic about its chances of winning the war without American intervention.[325]

Lend-Lease
In September 1940, the British and American governments concluded the destroyers-for-bases deal, by which 50 American destroyers were transferred to the Royal Navy in exchange for free US base rights in Bermuda, the Caribbean and Newfoundland. An added advantage for Britain was that its military assets in those bases could be redeployed elsewhere.[326] Churchill's good relations with President Franklin D. Roosevelt helped secure vital food, oil and munitions via the North Atlantic shipping routes.[327] It was for this reason that Churchill was relieved when Roosevelt was re-elected in 1940. Roosevelt set about implementing a new method of providing necessities to Great Britain, without the need for monetary payment. He persuaded Congress that repayment for this costly service would take the form of defending the US. The policy was known as Lend-Lease and was formally enacted on 11 March 1941.[328]

Operation Barbarossa

Churchill and Roosevelt seated on the quarterdeck of HMS Prince of Wales for a Sunday service during the Atlantic Conference, 10 August 1941
Hitler launched his invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. Churchill had known since April, from Enigma decrypts at Bletchley Park, that the attack was imminent. He had tried to warn Joseph Stalin via the ambassador to Moscow, Stafford Cripps, but Stalin did not trust Churchill. The night before the attack, already intending to address the nation, Churchill alluded to his hitherto anti-communist views by saying to Colville: "If Hitler invaded Hell, I would at least make a favourable reference to the Devil".[329]

Atlantic Charter
In August 1941, Churchill made his first transatlantic crossing of the war on board HMS Prince of Wales and met Roosevelt in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. On 14 August, they issued the joint statement known as the Atlantic Charter.[330] This outlined the goals of both countries for the future of the world and is seen as the inspiration for the 1942 Declaration by United Nations, itself the basis of the UN, founded in 1945.[331]

Pearl Harbor to D-Day: December 1941 to June 1944
Pearl Harbor and United States entry into the war
In December 1941, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was followed by their invasion of Malaya and, on the 8th, Churchill declared war on Japan. With the hope of using Irish ports for counter-submarine operations, Churchill sent a telegram to Irish Prime Minister Éamon de Valera in which he obliquely offers Irish unity: "Now is your chance. Now or never! A nation once again! I will meet you wherever you wish." No meeting took place and there is no record of a response.[332] Churchill went to Washington to meet Roosevelt for the Arcadia Conference. This was important for "Europe first", the decision to prioritise victory in Europe over victory in the Pacific, taken by Roosevelt while Churchill was still in the mid-Atlantic. The Americans agreed with Churchill that Hitler was the main enemy and defeat of Germany was key to Allied success.[333] It was also agreed that the first joint Anglo-American strike would be Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa. Originally planned for the spring 1942, it was launched in November 1942 when the crucial Second Battle of El Alamein was underway.[334]

On 26 December, Churchill addressed a joint meeting of the United States Congress. Later that night, he suffered a heart attack, which was diagnosed by his physician, Sir Charles Wilson, as a coronary deficiency, requiring several weeks' bed rest. Churchill insisted he did not need bed rest and journeyed to Ottawa by train, where he gave a speech to the Canadian Parliament that included the "some chicken, some neck" line in which he recalled French predictions in 1940 that "Britain alone would have her neck wrung like a chicken".[335] He arrived home mid-January, having flown from Bermuda to Plymouth in the first transatlantic air crossing by a head of government, to find there was a crisis of confidence in his government and him;[336] he decided to face a vote of confidence in the Commons, which he won easily.[337]

While he was away, the Eighth Army, having relieved the Siege of Tobruk, had pursued Operation Crusader against Rommel's forces in Libya, successfully driving them back to a defensive position at El Agheila in Cyrenaica. On 21 January 1942, however, Rommel launched a surprise counter-attack which drove the Allies back to Gazala. Elsewhere, British success in the Battle of the Atlantic was compromised by the Kriegsmarine's introduction of its M4 4-rotor Enigma, whose signals could not be deciphered by Bletchley Park for nearly a year.[338] At a press conference in Washington, Churchill had to play down his increasing doubts about the security of Singapore, given Japanese advances.[339]

Fall of Singapore and loss of Burma
Churchill already had grave concerns about the quality of British troops after the defeats in Norway, France, Greece and Crete.[340] Following the fall of Singapore to the Japanese on 15 February 1942, he felt his misgivings were confirmed and said: "(this is) the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British military history".[341] On 11 February the Kriegsmarine pulled off its audacious "Channel Dash", a massive blow to British naval prestige. The combined effect of these events was to sink Churchill's morale to its lowest point of the war.[340]

The Bengal Famine
Meanwhile, the Japanese had occupied most of Burma by the end of April 1942. Counter-offensives were hampered by the monsoon season and disordered conditions in Bengal and Bihar, as well as a severe cyclone which devastated the region in October 1942. A combination of factors, including the curtailment of essential rice imports from Burma, poor administration, wartime inflation and large-scale natural disasters such as flooding and crop disease led to the Bengal famine of 1943,[342] in which an estimated 2.1–3.8 million people died.[343]

From December 1942, food shortages had prompted senior officials to ask London for grain imports, although the colonial authorities failed to recognise the seriousness of the famine and responded ineptly.[344] Churchill's government was criticised for refusing to approve more imports, a policy it ascribed to an acute shortage of shipping.[345] When the British realised the full extent of the famine in September 1943, Churchill ordered the transportation of 130,000 tons of grain and the cabinet agreed to send 200,000 tons by the end of the year.[346][347] During the last quarter of 1943, 100,000 tons of rice and 176,000 tons of wheat were imported, compared to averages of 55,000 and 54,000 tons respectively earlier in the year.[348]

In October, Churchill wrote to the Viceroy of India, Lord Wavell, charging him with the responsibility of ending the famine.[346] In February 1944, as preparation for Operation Overlord placed greater demands on Allied shipping, Churchill cabled Wavell saying: "I will certainly help you all I can, but you must not ask the impossible".[347] Grain shipment requests continued to be turned down by the government throughout 1944, and Wavell complained to Churchill in October that "the vital problems of India are being treated by His Majesty's Government with neglect, even sometimes with hostility and contempt".[345][349] The impact of British policies on the famine death toll remains controversial.[350]

International conferences in 1942

Huge portraits of Churchill and Stalin, Brisbane, Australia, 31 October 1941
On 20 May 1942, the Soviet Foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, arrived in London to sign a treaty of friendship. Molotov wanted it done on the basis of territorial concessions regarding Poland and the Baltic countries. Churchill and Eden worked for a compromise and a twenty-year treaty was formalised, with the question of frontiers placed on hold. Molotov also sought a Second Front in Europe; Churchill confirmed preparations were in progress and made no promises on a date.[351]

Churchill felt pleased with these negotiations.[352] However, Rommel had launched his counter-offensive, Operation Venice, to begin the Battle of Gazala on 26 May.[352] The Allies were driven out of Libya and suffered a defeat in the fall of Tobruk on 21 June. Churchill was with Roosevelt when the news reached him, and was shocked by the surrender of 35,000 troops which was, apart from Singapore, "the heaviest blow" he received in the war.[353] The Axis advance was halted at the First Battle of El Alamein in July and the Battle of Alam el Halfa in September. Both sides were exhausted and in need of reinforcements and supplies.[354]

Churchill returned to Washington on 17 June. He and Roosevelt agreed on the implementation of Operation Torch as the necessary precursor to an invasion of Europe. Roosevelt had appointed General Dwight D. Eisenhower as commanding officer of the European Theater of Operations, United States Army (ETOUSA). Having received the news from North Africa, Churchill obtained shipment from America to the Eighth Army of 300 Sherman tanks and 100 howitzers. He returned to Britain on 25 June and had to face another motion of no confidence, this time in his direction of the war, but again he won easily.[355]

In August, despite health concerns, Churchill visited British forces in North Africa, raising morale, en route to Moscow for his first meeting with Stalin. He was accompanied by Roosevelt's special envoy Averell Harriman.[356] He was in Moscow 12–16 August and had lengthy meetings with Stalin. Though they got along well personally, there was little chance of real progress given the state of the war. Stalin was desperate for the Allies to open the Second Front in Europe, as Churchill had discussed with Molotov in May, and the answer was the same.[357]

El Alamein and Stalingrad
While he was in Cairo in August, Churchill appointed Field Marshal Alexander as Field Marshal Auchinleck's successor as Commander-in-Chief of the Middle East Theatre. Command of the Eighth Army was given to General William Gott but he was shot down and killed while flying to Cairo, and General Montgomery succeeded him.[358]


Churchill meeting King Farouk in Cairo in December 1942
As 1942 drew to a close, the tide of war began to turn with Allied victories in El Alamein, successful North Africa landings going on and Stalingrad. Until November, the Allies had been on the defensive, but afterwards, the Germans were. Churchill ordered church bells to be rung throughout Great Britain for the first time since 1940.[358] On 10 November, knowing El Alamein was a victory and Operation Torch yet a success, he delivered one of his most memorable speeches[359] at Mansion House in London: "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning".[358]

International conferences in 1943

Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill at the Tehran Conference in 1943
In January 1943, Churchill met Roosevelt at the Casablanca Conference. It was attended by General Charles de Gaulle from the Free French Forces. Stalin had hoped to attend but declined because of Stalingrad. Although Churchill expressed doubts on the matter, the so-called Casablanca Declaration committed the Allies to securing "unconditional surrender".[360][361] From Morocco, Churchill went to Cairo, Adana, Cyprus, Cairo again and Algiers. He arrived home on 7 February having been out of the country for a month. He addressed the Commons on the 11th and became seriously ill with pneumonia the following day, necessitating more than a month of convalescence: he moved to Chequers. He returned to work in London on 15 March.[362]

Churchill made two transatlantic crossings during the year, meeting Roosevelt at the third Washington Conference in May and the first Quebec Conference in August.[363] In November, Churchill and Roosevelt met Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek at the Cairo Conference.[364] The most important conference of the year was 28 November to 1 December at Tehran, where Churchill and Roosevelt met Stalin in the first of the "Big Three" meetings, preceding those at Yalta and Potsdam. Roosevelt and Stalin co-operated in persuading Churchill to commit to opening of second front in western Europe and it was agreed Germany would be divided after the war, but no decisions were made about how.[365] On their way back, Churchill and Roosevelt held a Second Cairo Conference with Turkish president İsmet İnönü, but were unable to gain commitment from Turkey to join the Allies.[366]

Churchill went to Tunis, arriving on 10 December, initially as Eisenhower's guest (soon afterwards, Eisenhower took over as Supreme Allied Commander of the new SHAEF). Churchill became seriously ill with atrial fibrillation and was forced to remain in Tunis, until after Christmas while specialists were drafted in to ensure recovery. Clementine and Colville arrived to keep him company; Colville had just returned to Downing Street after two years in the RAF. On 27 December, the party went on to Marrakesh for convalescence. Feeling much better, Churchill flew to Gibraltar on 14 January 1944 and sailed home on the King George V. He was back in London on 18 January and surprised MPs by attending Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons. Since 12 January 1943, when he set off for Casablanca, Churchill had been abroad or seriously ill for 203 of the 371 days.[367]

Invasions of Sicily and Italy

Churchill in the Carthage theatre, near the ancient Carthage Amphitheatre, to address 3,000 British and American troops, June 1943
In the autumn of 1942, after Churchill's meeting with Stalin, he was approached by Eisenhower, commanding the North African Theater of Operations, US Army (NATOUSA), and his aides on the subject of where the Western Allies should launch their first strike in Europe. According to General Mark W. Clark, the Americans admitted a cross-Channel operation in the near future was "utterly impossible". As an alternative, Churchill recommended "slit(ting) the soft belly of the Mediterranean" and persuaded them to invade Sicily and then mainland Italy, after they had defeated the Afrika Korps. After the war, Clark still agreed Churchill's analysis was correct, but added that, when the Allies landed at Salerno, they found Italy was "a tough old gut".[368]

The invasion of Sicily began on 9 July and was completed by 17 August. Churchill was not keen on Overlord as he feared an Anglo-American army in France might not be a match for the fighting efficiency of the Wehrmacht. He preferred peripheral operations, including a plan called Operation Jupiter for an invasion of Norway.[369] Events in Sicily had an unexpected impact in Italy. King Victor Emmanuel sacked Mussolini on 25 July and appointed Marshal Badoglio as prime minister. Badoglio opened negotiations with the Allies which resulted in the Armistice of Cassibile on 3 September. In response, the Germans activated Operation Achse and took control of most of Italy.[370]

Although he still preferred Italy to Normandy as the Allies' main route into the Third Reich, Churchill was concerned about the strong German resistance at Salerno and, after the Allies successfully gained their bridgehead at Anzio but still failed to break the stalemate, he caustically said that instead of "hurling a wildcat onto the shore", the Allied force had become a "stranded whale".[371][372] The big obstacle was Monte Cassino and it was not until May 1944 when it was finally overcome, enabling the Allies to advance on Rome, which was taken on 4 June.[373]

Preparations for D-Day

Churchill is greeted by a crowd in Québec City, Canada, 1943
The difficulties in Italy caused Churchill to change heart about strategy; when the Anzio stalemate developed after his return to England from North Africa, he threw himself into the planning of Overlord and set up meetings with SHAEF and the British Chiefs of Staff. These were attended by Eisenhower or his chief of staff General Walter Bedell Smith. Churchill was especially taken by the Mulberry harbours, but was keen to make the most of Allied airpower which by 1944, had become overwhelming.[373] Churchill never lost his apprehension about the invasion, and underwent mood fluctuation as D-Day approached. Jenkins says he faced potential victory with much less buoyancy than when he defiantly faced the prospect of defeat four years earlier.[374]

Need for post-war reform
Churchill could not ignore the need for post-war reforms. The Beveridge Report with its five "Giant Evils" was published in November 1942 and assumed great importance amid popular acclaim.[375] Even so, Churchill spent most of his focus on the war, and saw reform in terms of tidying up. His attitude was demonstrated in a radio broadcast on 26 March 1944. He was obliged to devote most of it to reform and showed a distinct lack of interest. Colville said Churchill had broadcast "indifferently" and Harold Nicolson said that, to many people, Churchill came across the air as "a worn and petulant old man".[376] In the end, however, it was demand for reform that decided the 1945 general election. Labour was perceived as the party that would deliver Beveridge. Attlee, Bevin and Labour's other coalition ministers, were seen as working towards reform and earned the trust of the electorate.[377][378]

Defeat of Germany: June 1944 to May 1945

Churchill's crossing of the Rhine river in Germany, during Operation Plunder on 25 March 1945
D-Day: Allied invasion of Normandy
Churchill was determined to be actively involved in the Normandy invasion and hoped to cross the Channel on D-Day (6 June 1944) or at least D-Day+1. His desire caused unnecessary consternation at SHAEF, until he was effectively vetoed by the King. Churchill expected an Allied death toll of 20,000 on D-Day but fewer than 8,000 died in all of June.[379] He made his first visit to Normandy on 12 June to visit Montgomery, whose HQ was five miles inland. That evening, as he was returning to London, the first V-1 flying bombs were launched. On 22–23 July, Churchill went to Cherbourg and Arromanches where he saw the Mulberry Harbour.[380]

Quebec Conference, September 1944
Churchill met Roosevelt at the Second Quebec Conference in September 1944. They reached agreement on the Morgenthau Plan for the Allied occupation of Germany, the intention of which was not only to demilitarise, but de-industrialise. Eden opposed it and was able to persuade Churchill to disown it. US Secretary of State Cordell Hull opposed it and convinced Roosevelt it was infeasible.[381]

Moscow Conference, October 1944
At the fourth Moscow conference in October 1944, Churchill and Eden met Stalin and Molotov. This conference has gained notoriety for the so-called "Percentages agreement" in which Churchill and Stalin effectively agreed the post-war fate of the Balkans.[382] By then, the Soviet armies were in Rumania and Bulgaria. Churchill suggested a scale of predominance throughout the whole region so as not to, as he put it, "get at cross-purposes in small ways".[383] He wrote down some suggested percentages of influence per country and gave it to Stalin who ticked it. The agreement was that Russia would have 90% control of Romania and 75% control of Bulgaria. The United Kingdom and United States would have 90% control of Greece. Hungary and Yugoslavia would be 50% each.[384] In 1958, five years after the account of this meeting was published (in The Second World War), Soviet authorities denied Stalin had accepted such an "imperialist proposal".[382]

Yalta Conference, February 1945
Main article: Yalta Conference

Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin at the Yalta Conference, February 1945
From 30 January to 2 February 1945, Churchill and Roosevelt met for their Malta Conference ahead of the second "Big Three" event at Yalta from 4 to 11 February.[385] Yalta had massive implications for the post-war world. There were two predominant issues: the question of setting up the United Nations Organisation, on which much progress was made; and the more vexed question of Poland's post-war status, which Churchill saw as a test case for Eastern Europe.[386] Churchill faced criticism for the agreement on Poland. For example, 27 Tory MPs voted against him when the matter was debated in the Commons at the end of the month. Jenkins, however, maintains that Churchill did as well as possible in difficult circumstances, not least the fact that Roosevelt was seriously ill and could not provide Churchill with meaningful support.[387]

Another outcome of Yalta was the so-called Operation Keelhaul. The Western Allies agreed to the forcible repatriation of all Soviet citizens in the Allied zones, including prisoners of war, to the Soviet Union and the policy was later extended to all Eastern European refugees, many of whom were anti-communist. Keelhaul was implemented between August 1946 and May 1947.[388][389]

Area bombing controversy
Main article: Bombing of Dresden

The destruction of Dresden, February 1945
On the nights of 13–15 February 1945, 1,200 British and US bombers attacked Dresden, which was crowded with wounded and refugees from the Eastern Front.[390][391] The attacks were part of an area bombing campaign initiated by Churchill in January with the intention of shortening the war.[392] Churchill came to regret the bombing because initial reports suggested an excessive number of civilian casualties close to the end of the war, though an independent commission in 2010 confirmed a death toll of about 24,000.[393] On 28 March, he decided to restrict area bombing[394] and sent a memo to General Ismay for the Chiefs of Staff Committee:[395][396]

The destruction of Dresden remains a serious query against the conduct of Allied bombing.... I feel the need for more precise concentration upon military objectives.... rather than on mere acts of terror and wanton destruction, however impressive.

Historian Frederick Taylor has pointed out that the number of Soviets who died from German bombing was roughly equivalent to the number of Germans who died from Allied raids.[397] Jenkins asks if Churchill was moved more by foreboding than by regret, but admits it is easy to criticise with the hindsight of victory. He adds that the area bombing campaign was no more reprehensible than President Truman's use of the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki six months later.[394] Andrew Marr, quoting Max Hastings, says that Churchill's memo was a "calculated political attempt...to distance himself...from the rising controversy surrounding the area offensive".[396]

VE Day (Victory in Europe Day)

Churchill waving the Victory sign to the crowd in Whitehall on the day he broadcast to the nation that the war with Germany had been won, 8 May 1945.
On 7 May 1945 at the SHAEF headquarters in Reims the Allies accepted Germany's surrender. The next day was Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) when Churchill broadcast to the nation that Germany had surrendered and that a final ceasefire would come into effect at one minute past midnight that night.[398] Churchill went to Buckingham Palace where he appeared on the balcony with the Royal Family before a huge crowd of celebrating citizens. He went from the palace to Whitehall where he addressed another large crowd: "God bless you all. This is your victory. In our long history, we have never seen a greater day than this. Everyone, man or woman, has done their best".[399]

He asked Bevin to come forward and share the applause. Bevin said: "No, Winston, this is your day", and proceeded to conduct the people in the singing of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow".[399] In the evening, Churchill made another broadcast correctly asserting that the defeat of Japan would follow in the coming months.[400]

Later in the month France attempted to put down a nationalist uprising in the Syria. Churchill intervened and on 31 May gave de Gaulle an ultimatum to desist, but this was ignored. In what became known as the Levant Crisis, British forces from Transjordan were mobilised to restore order. The French, outnumbered, had no option but to return to their bases. De Gaulle felt humiliated, and a diplomatic row broke out – Churchill reportedly told a colleague that de Gaulle was "a great danger to peace and for Great Britain".[401]

Operation Unthinkable
Main article: Operation Unthinkable
In May 1945, Winston Churchill commissioned the Chiefs of Staff Committee to provide its thoughts on a possible military campaign against the USSR, code-named Operation Unthinkable.[402] One plan involved a surprise attack on Soviet troops stationed in Germany to impose "the will of the United States and the British Empire" on the Soviets.[403] The hypothetical start date for the Allied invasion of Soviet-held Europe was set for 1 July 1945.[403]

Caretaker government: May 1945 to July 1945
Main article: Churchill caretaker ministry
With a general election looming, and with Labour ministers refusing to continue the coalition, Churchill resigned as prime minister on 23 May 1945. Later that day, he accepted the King's invitation to form a new government, known officially as the National Government but sometimes called the caretaker ministry. It contained Conservatives, National Liberals and a few non-party figures such as Sir John Anderson and Lord Woolton, but not Labour or Archibald Sinclair's Official Liberals. Churchill was formally reappointed on 28 May.[404][405]

Potsdam Conference
Main article: Potsdam Conference

Churchill, Harry S. Truman, and Stalin at the Potsdam Conference, July 1945
Churchill was Great Britain's representative at the Potsdam Conference when it opened on 17 July and was accompanied at its sessions by Eden and Attlee. They attended nine sessions in nine days before returning to England for their election counts. After the landslide Labour victory, Attlee returned with Bevin as the new Foreign Secretary and there were five days of discussion.[406] Potsdam went badly for Churchill. Eden later described his performance as "appalling", saying he was unprepared and verbose. Churchill upset the Chinese, exasperated the Americans and was easily led by Stalin, whom he was supposed to be resisting.[407]

General election, July 1945
Main article: 1945 United Kingdom general election
Churchill mishandled the election campaign by resorting to party politics and trying to denigrate Labour.[408] On 4 June, he committed a serious gaffe by saying in a radio broadcast that a Labour government would require "some form of Gestapo" to enforce its agenda.[409][410] It backfired and Attlee made political capital by saying in his reply broadcast next day: "The voice we heard last night was that of Mr Churchill, but the mind was that of Lord Beaverbrook". Jenkins says that this broadcast was "the making of Attlee".[411]

Although polling day was 5 July, the results did not become known until 26 July, owing to the need to collect votes of those serving overseas. Clementine and daughter Mary had been at the count in Woodford, Churchill's new constituency, and had returned to Downing Street to meet him for lunch. Churchill was unopposed by the major parties in Woodford, but his majority over a sole independent candidate was much less than expected. He anticipated defeat by Labour and Mary later described the lunch as "an occasion of Stygian gloom".[412][413] To Clementine's suggestion that defeat might be "a blessing in disguise", Churchill retorted: "At the moment it seems very effectively disguised".[412]

That afternoon Churchill's doctor Lord Moran commiserated with him on the "ingratitude" of the public, to which Churchill replied: "I wouldn't call it that. They have had a very hard time".[413] Having lost, despite enjoying personal support amongst the population, he resigned as prime minister and was succeeded by Attlee who formed the first majority Labour government.[414][415][416][417] Many reasons have been given for Churchill's defeat, key being a widespread desire for reform and that the man who had led Britain in war was not seen as the man to lead in peace.[418][419] Although the Conservative Party was unpopular, many electors appear to have wanted Churchill to continue as prime minister whatever the outcome, or to have wrongly believed this would be possible.[420]

Leader of the Opposition: 1945–1951
Main article: Later life of Winston Churchill
"Iron Curtain" speech

Churchill in 1949
Churchill continued to lead the Conservative Party and served as Leader of the Opposition. In 1946, he was in America from early January to late March.[421] It was on this trip he gave his "Iron Curtain" speech about the USSR and its creation of the Eastern Bloc.[422] Speaking on 5 March 1946 in the company of President Truman at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, Churchill declared:[423]

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere.

His view was that, though the Soviet Union did not want war with the western Allies, its entrenched position in Eastern Europe had made it impossible for the three great powers to provide the world with a "triangular leadership". Churchill's desire was much closer collaboration between Britain and America. Within the same speech, he called for "a special relationship between the British Commonwealth and Empire and the United States",[423] but emphasised the need for co-operation within the framework of the United Nations Charter.[424]

European politics
Churchill was an early proponent of pan-Europeanism, having called for a "United States of Europe" in a 1930 article. He supported the creations of the Council of Europe in 1949 and the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, but his support was always with the firm proviso that Britain must not actually join any federal grouping.[425][426][427]

Ireland
Having lived in Ireland as a child, Churchill always opposed its partition. As a minister in 1913 and again in 1921, he suggested that Ulster should be part of a united Ireland, but with a degree of autonomy from an independent Irish government. He was always opposed on this by Ulster Unionists.[428] While he was Leader of the Opposition, he told John Dulanty and Frederick Boland, successive Irish ambassadors to London, that he still hoped for reunification.[429]

1950 and 1951 Elections
Labour won the 1950 general election, but with a much-reduced majority.[430] A fresh election was called the following year and the Conservatives won a majority.

Prime Minister: 1951–1955
Main article: Second premiership of Winston Churchill
Further information: Third Churchill ministry
Election result and cabinet appointments

Churchill with Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, 10 February 1953
Despite losing the popular vote, the Conservatives won a majority of 17 seats in the October 1951 general election and Churchill became prime minister, remaining in office until his resignation on 5 April 1955.[431] Eden, his eventual successor, was restored to Foreign Affairs.[432] Future prime minister Harold Macmillan was appointed Minister of Housing and Local Government with a manifesto commitment to build 300,000 new houses per year, Churchill's only real domestic concern. He achieved the target and, in 1954, was promoted to Minister of Defence.[433]

Health issues to eventual resignation
Churchill was nearly 77 when he took office and not in good health following minor strokes.[434] By December 1951, George VI had become concerned about Churchill's decline and intended asking him to stand down in favour of Eden, but the King had his own health issues and died on 6 February 1952.[435] Churchill developed a friendship with Elizabeth II and, in spring 1953, accepted the Order of the Garter at her request.[436] He was knighted as Sir Winston on 24 April 1953.[437] It was widely expected he would retire after the Queen's Coronation in June 1953 but, after Eden became seriously ill, Churchill increased his own responsibilities by taking over at the Foreign Office.[438][439][440] Eden was incapacitated until the end of the year and was never completely well again.[441] On the evening of 23 June 1953, Churchill suffered a serious stroke; the matter was kept secret and Churchill went to Chartwell to recuperate. He had recovered by November.[442][443][444] He retired in April 1955 and was succeeded by Eden.[445]

Foreign affairs

Churchill with Anthony Eden, Dean Acheson and Harry Truman, 5 January 1952
Churchill feared a global conflagration and firmly believed the only way to preserve peace and freedom was friendship and co-operation between Britain and America. He made four official transatlantic visits from January 1952 to July 1954.[446] He enjoyed a good relationship with Truman, but difficulties arose over the planned European Defence Community (EDC), by which Truman hoped to reduce America's military presence in West Germany.[447] Churchill wanted US military support of British interests in Egypt and the Middle East, but while Truman expected British military involvement in Korea, he viewed any US commitment to the Middle East as maintaining British imperialism.[448] The Americans recognised the British Empire was in terminal decline and had welcomed the Attlee government's policy of decolonisation. Churchill believed Britain's position as a world power depended on the empire's continued existence.[449]


Churchill meeting Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, 22 October 1954, one of the UK's African allies in World War II
Churchill had been obliged to recognise Colonel Nasser's revolutionary government of Egypt, which took power in 1952. Much to Churchill's dismay, agreement was reached in October 1954 on the phased evacuation of British troops from their Suez base. Britain agreed to terminate its rule in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan by 1956, though this was in return for Nasser's abandonment of Egyptian claims over the region.[450] Elsewhere, the Malayan Emergency, a guerrilla war fought by Communist fighters against Commonwealth forces, had begun in 1948 and continued until 1960. Churchill's government maintained the military response to the crisis and adopted a similar strategy for the Mau Mau Uprising in British Kenya (1952–1960).[451]

Churchill was uneasy about the election of Eisenhower as Truman's successor. After Stalin died in March 1953, Churchill sought a summit meeting with the Soviets, but Eisenhower refused out of fear the Soviets would use it for propaganda.[452][438][453] By July, Churchill was deeply regretting that the Democrats had not been returned. Churchill believed Eisenhower did not fully comprehend the danger posed by the H-bomb and he greatly distrusted Eisenhower's Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles.[454] Churchill hosted Eisenhower at the Three-Powers Bermuda Conference, with French Prime Minister Joseph Laniel, in December;[455][456] they met again in June/July 1954 at the White House.[457] In the end, the Soviets proposed a four-power summit, but it did not meet until July 1955, three months after Churchill's retirement.[458][459]

Later life: 1955–1965
Main article: Later life of Winston Churchill
Retirement: 1955–1964
Elizabeth II offered to create Churchill Duke of London, but he declined because of the objections of Randolph, who would have inherited the title.[460] Although publicly supportive, Churchill was privately scathing about Eden's handling of the Suez Crisis and Clementine believed that many of his visits to the US in the following years were attempts to repair Anglo-American relations.[461]

Churchill remained an MP until he stood down at the 1964 general election.[462] By the time of the 1959 general election, he seldom attended the House of Commons. Despite the Conservative landslide in 1959, his own majority fell by more than 1,000. He spent most of his retirement at Chartwell or at his London home in Hyde Park Gate, and became a habitué of high society at La Pausa on the French Riviera.[463] In June 1962, aged 87, Churchill had a fall in Monte Carlo and broke his hip. He was flown home to a London hospital where he remained for 3 weeks. Jenkins says Churchill was never the same after this.[462] In 1963, US President John F. Kennedy, acting under authorisation granted by an Act of Congress, proclaimed him an honorary citizen of the United States, but he was unable to attend the White House ceremony.[462] There has been speculation he became very depressed in his final years, but this was emphatically denied by his secretary Anthony Montague Browne, who was with him for his last 10 years. Montague Browne wrote that he never heard Churchill refer to depression and certainly did not suffer from it.[464]

Death, funeral and memorials
Main article: Death and state funeral of Winston Churchill

Churchill's grave at St Martin's Church, Bladon
Churchill suffered his final stroke on 10 January 1965 and died on 24 January, in his home at 28 Hyde Park Gate, London.[462][465] Like the Duke of Wellington in 1852 and William Gladstone in 1898, Churchill was given a state funeral.[462] His coffin lay in state at Westminster Hall for three days. The funeral ceremony was at St Paul's Cathedral on 30 January.[462][465] Afterwards, the coffin was taken by boat along the River Thames to Waterloo Station and from there by a special train to the family plot at St Martin's Church, Bladon.[466][465]

Worldwide, numerous memorials have been dedicated to Churchill. His statue in Parliament Square was unveiled by his widow Clementine in 1973 and is one of only twelve in the square.[467][468] Elsewhere in London, the Cabinet War Rooms have been renamed the Churchill War Rooms.[469] Churchill College, Cambridge, was established as a national memorial to Churchill. In a 2002 BBC poll that attracted 447,423 votes, he was voted the greatest-ever Briton, his nearest rival being Isambard Kingdom Brunel some 56,000 votes behind.[470]

Churchill was the first of only eight people to be granted honorary citizenship of the United States.[471] The United States Navy honoured him in 1999 by naming a Arleigh Burke-class destroyer as the USS Winston S. Churchill.[472] Other memorials in North America include the National Churchill Museum in Fulton, where he made the 1946 "Iron Curtain" speech; Churchill Square in Edmonton, Alberta; and the Winston Churchill Range, a mountain range northwest of Lake Louise, also in Alberta, which was renamed after Churchill in 1956.[473]

Artist, historian, and writer
Main articles: Winston Churchill as a painter and Winston Churchill as a writer
Further information: 1953 Nobel Prize in Literature

Allies (1995) by Lawrence Holofcener, a sculptural group depicting Franklin D. Roosevelt and Churchill in Bond Street, London
Churchill was a prolific writer. His output included a novel (Savrola), two biographies, memoirs, histories, and press articles. Two of his most famous works were his six-volume memoir, The Second World War, and the four-volume A History of the English-Speaking Peoples.[474] In recognition of his "mastery of historical and biographical description" and oratorial output, Churchill received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953.[475]

He used either "Winston S. Churchill" or "Winston Spencer Churchill" as his pen name to avoid confusion with the American novelist Winston Churchill, whom he had a friendly correspondence with.[476] For many years, he relied on his press articles to assuage his financial worries.[477]

Churchill became an accomplished amateur artist beginning after his resignation from the Admiralty in 1915.[478] Often using the pseudonym "Charles Morin",[479] he completed hundreds of paintings, many of which are on show in Chartwell and in private collections.[480]

Churchill was an amateur bricklayer, constructing buildings and garden walls at Chartwell.[479] He joined the Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers, but was expelled after he rejoined the Conservative Party.[479] He bred butterflies.[481] He was known for his love of animals and always had several pets, mainly cats but also dogs, pigs, lambs, bantams, goats and fox cubs among others.[482] Churchill has been quoted as saying that "Dogs look up to you, cats look down on you. Give me a pig! He looks you in the eye and treats you as an equal".[483]

Legacy and assessments
Main articles: Political positions of Winston Churchill and List of honours of Winston Churchill
See also: Churchill Archives Centre
"A man of destiny"

The statue of Churchill (1973) by Ivor Roberts-Jones in Parliament Square, London
Jenkins concludes his biography of Churchill by comparing him favourably with William Gladstone and summarising:[466]

I now put Churchill, with all his idiosyncrasies, his indulgences, his occasional childishness, but also his genius, his tenacity and his persistent ability, right or wrong, successful or unsuccessful, to be larger than life, as the greatest human being ever to occupy 10 Downing Street.

Churchill always self-confidently believed himself to be "a man of destiny".[484] Because of this he lacked restraint and could be reckless.[485][486] His self-belief manifested in his "affinity with war" of which, according to Sebastian Haffner, he exhibited "a profound and innate understanding".[487] Churchill considered himself a military genius, but that made him vulnerable to failure and Paul Addison says the Gallipoli disaster was "the greatest blow his self-image was ever to sustain".[488] Jenkins points out, that although Churchill was exhilarated by war, he was never indifferent to the suffering it causes.[489]

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As a politician, Churchill was perceived by some to have been largely motivated by personal ambition rather than political principle.[490][491] During his early career, he was often provocative and argumentative to an unusual degree;[492] and his barbed rhetorical style earned him enemies in parliament.[493][494] Others deemed him to be an honest politician who displayed particular loyalty to his family and close friends.[495] Robert Rhodes James said he "lacked any capacity for intrigue and was refreshingly innocent and straightforward".[496]

Until the outbreak of the Second World War, Churchill's approach to politics generated widespread "mistrust and dislike",[497] largely on account of his two party defections.[498] His biographers have variously categorised him, in terms of political ideology, as "fundamentally conservative",[499] "(always) liberal in outlook",[500] and "never circumscribed by party affiliation".[501] He was nearly always opposed to socialism because of its propensity for state planning and his belief in free markets. The exception was during his wartime coalition when he was reliant upon the support of his Labour colleagues.[502][503] Churchill had long been regarded as an enemy of the working class, and his response to the Rhondda Valley unrest and his anti-socialist rhetoric brought condemnation from socialists who saw him as a reactionary.[504] His role in opposing the General Strike earned the enmity of strikers and most members of the Labour movement.[505] Paradoxically, Churchill was supportive of trade unionism, which he saw as the "antithesis of socialism".[506]

On the other hand, his detractors did not take Churchill's domestic reforms into account,[507] for he was in many respects a radical and reformer,[508] but always with the intention of preserving the existing social structure,[509] displaying what Addison calls the attitude of a "benevolent paternalist".[510] Jenkins, himself a senior Labour minister, remarked that Churchill had "a substantial record as a social reformer" for his work in his ministerial career.[511] Similarly, Rhodes James thought that Churchill's achievements were "considerable".[512]

Imperialism and racial views
See also: Racial views of Winston Churchill
Churchill was a staunch imperialist and monarchist, and consistently exhibited a "romanticised view" of the British Empire and reigning monarch, especially during his last term as premier.[513][514][515] Churchill has been described as a "liberal imperialist"[516] who saw British imperialism as a form of altruism that benefited its subject peoples.[517] He advocated against black or indigenous self-rule in Africa, Australia, the Caribbean, the Americas and India, believing the British Empire maintained the welfare of those who lived in the colonies.[346]

When he was Home Secretary in 1910-1911, Churchill supported the forced sterilization of the "feeble minded." In a letter to Prime Minister H. H. Asquith in February 1910, he wrote " The unnatural and increasingly rapid growth of the Feeble-Minded and Insane classes […] constitutes a national and race danger which it is impossible to exaggerate. […] I feel that the source from which the stream of madness is fed should be cut off and sealed up before another year has passed."[518][519][520]

According to Addison, Churchill was opposed to immigration from the Commonwealth.[521] Addison makes the point that Churchill opposed anti-Semitism (as in 1904, when he was critical of the proposed Aliens Bill) and argues he would never have tried "to stoke up racial animosity against immigrants, or to persecute minorities".[522] In the 1920s, Churchill supported Zionism but believed that communism was the product of an international Jewish conspiracy.[523] Although this belief was not unique among politicians, few had his stature,[524] and the article he wrote on the subject was criticised by The Jewish Chronicle.[525]

Churchill made disparaging remarks about non-white ethnicities throughout his life. Philip Murphy partly attributes the strength of this vitriol to an "almost childish desire to shock" his inner circle.[526] Churchill's response to the Bengal famine was criticised by contemporaries as slow, a controversy later increased by the publication of private remarks made to Secretary for India Leo Amery, in which Churchill allegedly said aid would be inadequate because "Indians [were] breeding like rabbits".[526][527] Philip Murphy says that, following the independence of India in 1947, Churchill adopted a pragmatic stance towards empire, although he continued to use imperial rhetoric. During his second term as prime minister, he was seen as a moderating influence on Britain's suppression of armed insurgencies in Malaya and Kenya; he argued that ruthless policies contradicted British values and international opinion.[526]


The British Empire at its territorial peak in 1921
Cultural depictions
Main article: Cultural depictions of Winston Churchill
While biographies by Addison, Gilbert, Jenkins and Rhodes James are among the most acclaimed works about Churchill, he has been the subject of numerous others. David Freeman counted 62 in English to the end of the 20th century.[528] At a public ceremony in Westminster Hall on 30 November 1954, Churchill's 80th birthday, the joint Houses of Parliament presented him with a full-length portrait of himself, painted by Graham Sutherland.[529] Churchill and Clementine reportedly hated it and she had it destroyed.[530][531]

Biographical films include Young Winston (1972), directed by Richard Attenborough and featuring Simon Ward in the title role; Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981), starring Robert Hardy; The Gathering Storm (2002), starring Albert Finney as Churchill; Into the Storm (2009), starring Brendan Gleeson as Churchill; Darkest Hour (2017), starring Gary Oldman as Churchill. John Lithgow played Churchill in The Crown (2016–2019). Finney, Gleeson, Oldman and Lithgow all won awards for their performances.[532][533][534][535]

Family
Main article: Family of Winston Churchill
Churchill married Clementine Hozier in September 1908.[536] They remained married for 57 years until his death.[108] Churchill was aware of the strain his career placed on their marriage.[537] According to Colville, he had an affair in the 1930s with Doris Castlerosse,[538] although this is discounted by Andrew Roberts.[539]

The Churchills' first child, Diana, was born in July 1909;[540] Randolph, in May 1911.[146] Sarah, was born in October 1914,[169] and Marigold, in November 1918.[198] Marigold died in August 1921, from sepsis.[541] On 15 September 1922, the Churchills' last child, Mary, was born. Later that month, the Churchills bought Chartwell, which would be their home until Winston's death in 1965.[542][543]






--- FAMOUS QUOTES ---


1. "If you are going through hell, keep going."

2. "Never, never, never give up."

3. "Time and money are largely interchangeable terms."

4. "Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught."

5. "Vengeance is the most costly and dissipating of luxuries."

6. "Harsh laws are at times better than no laws at all."

7. "Everyone has his day, and some days last longer than others."

8. "Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts."

9. "It is not in our power to anticipate our destiny."

10. "All the greatest things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope."


11. "Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result."

12. "My tastes are simple: I am easily satisfied with the best."

13. "To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to change often."

14. "All wisdom is not new wisdom."

15. "Every man should ask himself each day whether he is not too readily accepting negative solutions."

16. "If you destroy a free market you create a black market."

17. "The price of greatness is responsibility."

18. "All I can say is that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me."

19. "I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."

20. "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."

21. "In finance, everything that is agreeable is unsound, and everything that is sound is disagreeable."

22. "You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something in your life."

23. "The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes."

24. "The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see."

25. "One ought to be just before one is generous."

26. "To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day."

27. "It is wonderful what great strides can be made when there is a resolute purpose behind them."

28. "Out of intense complexities, intense simplicities emerge."

29. "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, it's also what it takes to sit down and listen."

30. "If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time—a tremendous whack."

31. "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."

32. "I never worry about action, but only about inaction."

33. "War never pays its dividends in cash on the money it costs."

34. "Continuous effort—not strength or intelligence—is the key to unlocking our potential."


35. "Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because it has been said, it is the quality which guarantees all others."

36. "Nothing makes a man more reverent than a library."

37. "You will never get to the end of the journey if you stop to shy a stone at every dog that barks."

38. "For myself, I am an optimist—it does not seem to be much use being anything else."


39. "The nose of the bulldog has been slanted backwards so that he can breathe without letting go."

40. "One always measures friendships by how they show up in bad weather."

41. "There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true."

42. "You must look at facts because they look at you."


43. "The empires of the future are the empires of the mind."

44. "We have a lot of anxieties, and one cancels out another."

45. "Nourish your hopes, but do not overlook realities."

46. "To be really happy and really safe, one ought to have at least two or three hobbies, and they must all be real."

47. "History will be kind to me for I intend to write it."


48. "It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time."

49. "Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference."

50. "Craft is common both to skill and deceit."

51. "In a war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times."

52. "It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required."

53. "Evils can be created much quicker than they can be cured."

54. "Give us the tools, and we will finish the job."

55. "Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace, and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war."

56. "Broadly speaking, short words are best, and the old words, when short, are best of all."

57. "We shape our dwellings, and afterwards, our dwellings shape us."

58. "Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."

59. "There is only one duty, only one safe course, and that is to try to be right and not to fear to do or say what you believe to be right."

60. "What is adequacy? Adequacy is no standard at all."

61. "In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet."

62. "It is the time to dare and endure."

63. "If we open a quarrel between the past and the present we shall find that we have lost the future."

64. "Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen."

65. "It is better to be making the news than taking it; to be an actor rather than a critic."

66. "I have in my life concentrated more on self-expression than self-denial."

67. "Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it."

68. "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."

69. "There is always much to be said for not attempting more than you can do and for making a certainty of what you try. But this principle, like others in life and war, has its exceptions."

70. "The true guide of life is to do what is right."

71. "Tact is the ability to tell someone to 'go to hell' in such a way that they look forward to the trip."

72. "You never can tell whether bad luck may not, after all, turn out to be good luck."

73. "You must put your head into the lion's mouth if the performance is to be a success."

74. "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened."

75. "Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business."

76. "I like things to happen, and if they don't happen I like to make them happen."

77. "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile—hoping it will eat him last."

78. "The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself."

79. "Without a measureless and perpetual uncertainty, the drama of human life would be destroyed."

80. "I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over, I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting."

81. "The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is."

82. "I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning, I will be sober, and you will still be ugly."

83. "I object on principle to doing by legislation what properly belongs to human good feeling and charity."

84. "Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb."

85. "Difficulties mastered are opportunities won."

86. "The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."

87. "The first duty of the university is to teach wisdom, not a trade; character, not technicalities. We want a lot of engineers in the modern world, but we do not want a world of engineers."

88. "The English never draw a line without blurring it."

89. "You cannot cure cancer by a majority."

90. "If we win, nobody will care. If we lose, there will be nobody to care."

91. "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."

92. "We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it."

93. "We must beware of needless innovation, especially when guided by logic."

94. "If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law."

95. "We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out."

96. "Do not let spacious plans for a new world divert your energies from saving what is left of the old."

97. "There is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure."

98. "Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong."

99. "I'm prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter."

100. "We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty."

101. "A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." —Winston Churchill






--- SPEECH TRANSCRIPTS ---

**Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat (May 13, 1940)**
[I beg to move,

That this House welcomes the formation of a Government representing the united and inflexible resolve of the nation to prosecute the war with Germany to a victorious conclusion.

On Friday evening last I received His Majesty's Commission to form a new Administration. It as the evident wish and will of Parliament and the nation that this should be conceived on the broadest possible basis and that it should include all parties, both those who supported the late Government and also the parties of the Opposition. I have completed the most important part of this task. A War Cabinet has been formed of five Members, representing, with the Opposition Liberals, the unity of the nation. The three party Leaders have agreed to serve, either in the War Cabinet or in high executive office. The three Fighting Services have been filled. It was necessary that this should be done in one single day, on account of the extreme urgency and rigour of events. A number of other positions, key positions, were filled yesterday, and I am submitting a further list to His Majesty tonight. I hope to complete the appointment of the principal Ministers during tomorrow. The appointment of the other Ministers usually takes a little longer, but I trust that, when Parliament meets again, this part of my task will be completed, and that the administration will be complete in all respects.

I considered it in the public interest to suggest that the House should be summoned to meet today. Mr Speaker agreed, and took the necessary steps, in accordance with the powers conferred upon him by the Resolution of the House. At the end of the proceedings today, the Adjournment of the House will be proposed until Tuesday, 21st May, with, of course, provision for earlier meeting, if need be. The business to be considered during that week will be notified to Members at the earliest opportunity. I now invite the House, by the Motion which stands in my name, to record its approval of the steps taken and to declare its confidence in the new Government.

To form an Administration of this scale and complexity is a serious undertaking in itself, but it must be remembered that we are in the preliminary stage of one of the greatest battles in history, that we are in action at many other points in Norway and in Holland, that we have to be prepared in the Mediterranean, that the air battle is continuous and that many preparations, such as have been indicated by my hon. Friend below the Gangway, have to be made here at home. In this crisis I hope I may be pardoned if I do not address the House at any length today. I hope that any of my friends and colleagues, or former colleagues, who are affected by the political reconstruction, will make allowance, all allowance, for any lack of ceremony with which it has been necessary to act. I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."

We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Let that be realised; no survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forward towards its goal. But I take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, "Come then, let us go forward together with our united strength."

Winston Churchill
May 13, 1940
First Speech as Prime Minister
To the House of Commons]



**We Shall Fight on the Beaches (June 4, 1940)**
[We Shall Fight on the Beaches, 1940


From the moment that the French defences at Sedan and on the Meuse were broken at the end of the second week of May, only a rapid retreat to Amiens and the south could have saved the British and French Armies who had entered Belgium at the appeal of the Belgian King; but this strategic fact was not immediately realised. The French High Command hoped they would be able to close the gap, and the Armies of the north were under their orders. Moreover, a retirement of this kind would have involved almost certainly the destruction of the fine Belgian Army of over 20 divisions and the abandonment of the whole of Belgium. Therefore, when the force and scope of the German penetration were realised and when a new French Generalissimo, General Weygand, assumed command in place of General Gamelin, an effort was made by the French and British Armies in Belgium to keep on holding the right hand of the Belgians and to give their own right hand to a newly created French Army which was to have advanced across the Somme in great strength to grasp it.

However, the German eruption swept like a sharp scythe around the right and rear of the Armies of the north. Eight or nine armoured divisions, each of about four hundred armoured vehicles of different kinds, but carefully assorted to be complementary and divisible into small self-contained units, cut off all communications between us and the main French Armies. It severed our own communications for food and ammunition, which ran first to Amiens and afterwards through Abbeville, and it shore its way up the coast to Boulogne and Calais, and almost to Dunkirk. Behind this armoured and mechanised onslaught came a number of German divisions in lorries, and behind them again there plodded comparatively slowly the dull brute mass of the ordinary German Army and German people, always so ready to be led to the trampling down in other lands of liberties and comforts which they have never known in their own.

I have said this armoured scythe-stroke almost reached Dunkirk-almost but not quite. Boulogne and Calais were the scenes of desperate fighting. The Guards defended Boulogne for a while and were then withdrawn by orders from this country. The Rifle Brigade, the 60th Rifles, and the Queen Victoria's Rifles, with a battalion of British tanks and 1,000 Frenchmen, in all about four thousand strong, defended Calais to the last. The British Brigadier was given an hour to surrender. He spurned the offer, and four days of intense street fighting passed before silence reigned over Calais, which marked the end of a memorable resistance. Only 30 unwounded survivors were brought off by the Navy, and we do not know the fate of their comrades. Their sacrifice, however, was not in vain. At least two armoured divisions, which otherwise would have been turned against the British Expeditionary Force, had to be sent to overcome them. They have added another page to the glories of the light divisions, and the time gained enabled the Graveline water lines to be flooded and to be held by the French troops.

Thus it was that the port of Dunkirk was kept open. When it was found impossible for the Armies of the north to reopen their communications to Amiens with the main French Armies, only one choice remained. It seemed, indeed, forlorn. The Belgian, British and French Armies were almost surrounded. Their sole line of retreat was to a single port and to its neighboring beaches. They were pressed on every side by heavy attacks and far outnumbered in the air.

When, a week ago today, I asked the House to fix this afternoon as the occasion for a statement, I feared it would be my hard lot to announce the greatest military disaster in our long history. I thought - and some good judges agreed with me -that perhaps 20,000 or 30,000 men might be re-embarked. But it certainly seemed that the whole of the French First Army and the whole of the British Expeditionary Force north of the Amiens-Abbeville gap would be broken up in the open field or else would have to capitulate for lack of food and ammunition. These were the hard and heavy tidings for which I called upon the House and the nation to prepare themselves a week ago. The whole root and core and brain of the British Army, on which and around which we were to build, and are to build, the great British Armies in the later years of the war, seemed about to perish upon the field or to be led into an ignominious and starving captivity.

That was the prospect a week ago. But another blow which might well have proved final was yet to fall upon us. The King of the Belgians had called upon us to come to his aid. Had not this Ruler and his Government severed themselves from the Allies, who rescued their country from extinction in the late war, and had they not sought refuge in what was proved to be a fatal neutrality, the French and British Armies might well at the outset have saved not only Belgium but perhaps even Poland. Yet at the last moment, when Belgium was already invaded, King Leopold called upon us to come to his aid, and even at the last moment we came. He and his brave, efficient Army, nearly half a million strong, guarded our left flank and thus kept open our only line of retreat to the sea. Suddenly, without prior consultation, with the least possible notice, without the advice of his Ministers and upon his own personal act, he sent a plenipotentiary to the German Command, surrendered his Army, and exposed our whole flank and means of retreat.

I asked the House a week ago to suspend its judgement because the facts were not clear, but I do not feel that any reason now exists why we should not form our own opinions upon this pitiful episode. The surrender of the Belgian Army compelled the British at the shortest notice to cover a flank to the sea more than 30 miles in length. Otherwise all would have been cut off, and all would have shared the fate to which King Leopold had condemned the finest Army his country had ever formed. So in doing this and in exposing this flank, as anyone who followed the operations on the map will see, contact was lost between the British and two out of the three corps forming the First French Army, who were still farther from the coast than we were, and it seemed impossible that any large number of Allied troops could reach the coast.

The enemy attacked on all sides with great strength and fierceness, and their main power, the power of their far more numerous Air Force, was thrown into the battle or else concentrated upon Dunkirk and the beaches. Pressing in upon the narrow exit, both from the east and from the west, the enemy began to fire with cannon upon the beaches by which alone the shipping could approach or depart. They sowed magnetic mines in the channels and seas; they sent repeated waves of hostile aircraft, sometimes more than a hundred strong in one formation, to cast their bombs upon the single pier that remained, and upon the sand dunes upon which the troops had their eyes for shelter. Their U-boats, one of which was sunk, and their motor launches took their toll of the vast traffic which now began. For four or five days an intense struggle reigned. All their armoured divisions - or what was left of them - together with great masses of infantry and artillery, hurled themselves in vain upon the ever-narrowing, ever-contracting appendix within which the British and French Armies fought.

Meanwhile, the Royal Navy, with the willing help of countless merchant seamen, strained every nerve to embark the British and Allied troops; 220 light warships and 650 other vessels were engaged. They had to operate upon the difficult coast, often in adverse weather, under an almost ceaseless hail of bombs and an increasing concentration of artillery fire. Nor were the seas, as I have said, themselves free from mines and torpedoes. It was in conditions such as these that our men carried on, with little or no rest, for days and nights on end, making trip after trip across the dangerous waters, bringing with them always men whom they had rescued. The numbers they have brought back are the measure of their devotion and their courage. The hospital ships, which brought off many thousands of British and French wounded, being so plainly marked were a special target for Nazi bombs; but the men and women on board them never faltered in their duty.

Meanwhile, the Royal Air Force, which had already been intervening in the battle, so far as its range would allow, from home bases, now used part of its main metropolitan fighter strength, and struck at the German bombers and at the fighters which in large numbers protected them. This struggle was protracted and fierce. Suddenly the scene has cleared, the crash and thunder has for the moment - but only for the moment - died away. A miracle of deliverance, achieved by valour, by perseverance, by perfect discipline, by faultless service, by resource, by skill, by unconquerable fidelity, is manifest to us all. The enemy was hurled back by the retreating British and French troops. He was so roughly handled that he did not hurry their departure seriously. The Royal Air Force engaged the main strength of the German Air Force, and inflicted upon them losses of at least four to one; and the Navy, using nearly 1,000 ships of all kinds, carried over 335,000 men, French and British, out of the jaws of death and shame, to their native land and to the tasks which lie immediately ahead. We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations. But there was a victory inside this deliverance, which should be noted. It was gained by the Air Force. Many of our soldiers coming back have not seen the Air Force at work; they saw only the bombers which escaped its protective attack. They underrate its achievements. I have heard much talk of this; that is why I go out of my way to say this. I will tell you about it.

This was a great trial of strength between the British and German Air Forces. Can you conceive a greater objective for the Germans in the air than to make evacuation from these beaches impossible, and to sink all these ships which were displayed, almost to the extent of thousands? Could there have been an objective of greater military importance and significance for the whole purpose of the war than this? They tried hard, and they were beaten back; they were frustrated in their task. We got the Army away; and they have paid fourfold for any losses which they have inflicted. Very large formations of German aeroplanes - and we know that they are a very brave race - have turned on several occasions from the attack of one-quarter of their number of the Royal Air Force, and have dispersed in different directions. Twelve aeroplanes have been hunted by two. One aeroplane was driven into the water and cast away by the mere charge of a British aeroplane, which had no more ammunition. All of our types - the Hurricane, the Spitfire and the new Defiant - and all our pilots have been vindicated as superior to what they have at present to face.

When we consider how much greater would be our advantage in defending the air above this Island against an overseas attack, I must say that I find in these facts a sure basis upon which practical and reassuring thoughts may rest. I will pay my tribute to these young airmen. The great French Army was very largely, for the time being, cast back and disturbed by the onrush of a few thousands of armoured vehicles. May it not also be that the cause of civilisation itself will be defended by the skill and devotion of a few thousand airmen? There never has been, I suppose, in all the world, in all the history of war, such an opportunity for youth. The Knights of the Round Table, the Crusaders, all fall back into the past - not only distant but prosaic; these young men, going forth every morn to guard their native land and all that we stand for, holding in their hands these instruments of colossal and shattering power, of whom it may be said that

Every morn brought forth a noble chance
And every chance brought forth a noble knight,
deserve our gratitude, as do all the brave men who, in so many ways and on so many occasions, are ready, and continue ready to give life and all for their native land.

I return to the Army. In the long series of very fierce battles, now on this front, now on that, fighting on three fronts at once, battles fought by two or three divisions against an equal or somewhat larger number of the enemy, and fought fiercely on some of the old grounds that so many of us knew so well - in these battles our losses in men have exceeded 30,000 killed, wounded and missing. I take occasion to express the sympathy of the House to all who have suffered bereavement or who are still anxious. The President of the Board of Trade [Sir Andrew Duncan] is not here today. His son has been killed, and many in the House have felt the pangs of affliction in the sharpest form. But I will say this about the missing: We have had a large number of wounded come home safely to this country, but I would say about the missing that there may be very many reported missing who will come back home, some day, in one way or another. In the confusion of this fight it is inevitable that many have been left in positions where honour required no further resistance from them.

Against this loss of over 30,000 men, we can set a far heavier loss certainly inflicted upon the enemy. But our losses in material are enormous. We have perhaps lost one-third of the men we lost in the opening days of the battle of 21st March, 1918, but we have lost nearly as many guns — nearly one thousand - and all our transport, all the armoured vehicles that were with the Army in the north. This loss will impose a further delay on the expansion of our military strength. That expansion had not been proceeding as far as we had hoped. The best of all we had to give had gone to the British Expeditionary Force, and although they had not the numbers of tanks and some articles of equipment which were desirable, they were a very well and finely equipped Army. They had the first-fruits of all that our industry had to give, and that is gone. And now here is this further delay. How long it will be, how long it will last, depends upon the exertions which we make in this Island. An effort the like of which has never been seen in our records is now being made. Work is proceeding everywhere, night and day, Sundays and week days. Capital and Labour have cast aside their interests, rights, and customs and put them into the common stock. Already the flow of munitions has leaped forward. There is no reason why we should not in a few months overtake the sudden and serious loss that has come upon us, without retarding the development of our general program.

Nevertheless, our thankfulness at the escape of our Army and so many men, whose loved ones have passed through an agonising week, must not blind us to the fact that what has happened in France and Belgium is a colossal military disaster. The French Army has been weakened, the Belgian Army has been lost, a large part of those fortified lines upon which so much faith had been reposed is gone, many valuable mining districts and factories have passed into the enemy's possession, the whole of the Channel ports are in his hands, with all the tragic consequences that follow from that, and we must expect another blow to be struck almost immediately at us or at France. We are told that Herr Hitler has a plan for invading the British Isles. This has often been thought of before. When Napoleon lay at Boulogne for a year with his flat-bottomed boats and his Grand Army, he was told by someone. "There are bitter weeds in England." There are certainly a great many more of them since the British Expeditionary Force returned.

The whole question of home defence against invasion is, of course, powerfully affected by the fact that we have for the time being in this Island incomparably more powerful military forces than we have ever had at any moment in this war or the last. But this will not continue. We shall not be content with a defensive war. We have our duty to our Ally. We have to reconstitute and build up the British Expeditionary Force once again, under its gallant Commander-in-Chief, Lord Gort. All this is in train; but in the interval we must put our defences in this Island into such a high state of organisation that the fewest possible numbers will be required to give effective security and that the largest possible potential of offensive effort may be realised. On this we are now engaged. It will be very convenient, if it be the desire of the House, to enter upon this subject in a secret Session. Not that the government would necessarily be able to reveal in very great detail military secrets, but we like to have our discussions free, without the restraint imposed by the fact that they will be read the next day by the enemy; and the Government would benefit by views freely expressed in all parts of the House by Members with their knowledge of so many different parts of the country. I understand that some request is to be made upon this subject, which will be readily acceded to by His Majesty's Government.

We have found it necessary to take measures of increasing stringency, not only against enemy aliens and suspicious characters of other nationalities, but also against British subjects who may become a danger or a nuisance should the war be transported to the United Kingdom. I know there are a great many people affected by the orders which we have made who are the passionate enemies of Nazi Germany. I am very sorry for them, but we cannot, at the present time and under the present stress, draw all the distinctions which we should like to do. If parachute landings were attempted and fierce fighting attendant upon them followed, these unfortunate people would be far better out of the way, for their own sakes as well as for ours. There is, however, another class, for which I feel not the slightest sympathy. Parliament has given us the powers to put down Fifth Column activities with a strong hand, and we shall use those powers subject to the supervision and correction of the House, without the slightest hesitation until we are satisfied, and more than satisfied, that this malignancy in our midst has been effectively stamped out.

Turning once again, and this time more generally, to the question of invasion, I would observe that there has never been a period in all these long centuries of which we boast when an absolute guarantee against invasion, still less against serious raids, could have been given to our people. In the days of Napoleon the same wind which would have carried his transports across the Channel might have driven away the blockading fleet. There was always the chance, and it is that chance which has excited and befooled the imaginations of many Continental tyrants. Many are the tales that are told. We are assured that novel methods will be adopted, and when we see the originality of malice, the ingenuity of aggression, which our enemy displays, we may certainly prepare ourselves for every kind of novel stratagem and every kind of brutal and treacherous maneuver. I think that no idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered and viewed with a searching, but at the same time, I hope, with a steady eye. We must never forget the solid assurances of sea power and those which belong to air power if it can be locally exercised.

I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.

At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty's Government - every man of them. That is the will of Parliament and the nation.

The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength.

Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

 

Delivered at the House of Commons on 4 June 1940]



**Sinews of Peace / Iron Curtain Speech (March 5, 1946)**
[I am glad to come to Westminster College this afternoon, and am complimented that you should give me a degree. The name "Westminster" is somehow familiar to me. I seem to have heard of it before. Indeed, it was at Westminster that I received a very large part of my education in politics, dialectic, rhetoric, and one or two other things. In fact we have both been educated at the same, or similar, or, at any rate, kindred establishments.

It is also an honor, perhaps almost unique, for a private visitor to be introduced to an academic audience by the President of the United States. Amid his heavy burdens, duties, and responsibilities — unsought but not recoiled from — the President has traveled a thousand miles to dignify and magnify our meeting here to-day and to give me an opportunity of addressing this kindred nation, as well as my own countrymen across the ocean, and perhaps some other countries too. The President has told you that it is his wish, as I am sure it is yours, that I should have full liberty to give my true and faithful counsel in these anxious and baffling times.

I shall certainly avail myself of this freedom, and feel the more right to do so because any private ambitions I may have cherished in my younger days have been satisfied beyond my wildest dreams. Let me, however, make it clear that I have no official mission or status of any kind, and that I speak only for myself. There is nothing here but what you see.

I can therefore allow my mind, with the experience of a lifetime, to play over the problems which beset us on the morrow of our absolute victory in arms, and to try to make sure with what strength I have that what has been gained with so much sacrifice and suffering shall be preserved for the future glory and safety of mankind.

The United States stands at this time at the pinnacle of world power. It is a solemn moment for the American Democracy. For with primacy in power is also joined an awe-inspiring accountability to the future. If you look around you, you must feel not only the sense of duty done but also you must feel anxiety lest you fall below the level of achievement.

Opportunity is here now, clear and shining for both our countries. To reject it or ignore it or fritter it away will bring upon us all the long reproaches of the after-time.

It is necessary that constancy of mind, persistency of purpose, and the grand simplicity of decision shall guide and rule the conduct of the English-speaking peoples in peace as they did in war. We must, and I believe we shall, prove ourselves equal to this severe requirement.

When American military men approach some serious situation they are wont to write at the head of their directive the words "Overall Strategic Concept." There is wisdom in this, as it leads to clarity of thought. What then is the overall strategic concept which we should inscribe today? It is nothing less than the safety and welfare, the freedom and progress, of all the homes and families of all the men and women in all the lands.

And here I speak particularly of the myriad cottage or apartment homes where the wage-earner strives amid the accidents and difficulties of life to guard his wife and children from privation and bring the family up in the fear of the Lord, or upon ethical conceptions which often play their potent part.

To give security to these countless homes, they must be shielded from the two gaunt marauders, war and tyranny.

We all know the frightful disturbances in which the ordinary family is plunged when the curse of war swoops down upon the bread-winner and those for whom he works and contrives.

The awful ruin of Europe, with all its vanished glories, and of large parts of Asia glares us in the eyes. When the designs of wicked men or the aggressive urge of mighty States dissolve over large areas the frame of civilized society, humble folk are confronted with difficulties with which they cannot cope. For them all is distorted, all is broken, even ground to pulp.

When I stand here this quiet afternoon I shudder to visualize what is actually happening to millions now and what is going to happen in this period when famine stalks the earth. None can compute what has been called "the unestimated sum of human pain." Our supreme task and duty is to guard the homes of the common people from the horrors and miseries of another war. We are all agreed on that.

Our American military colleagues, after having proclaimed their "overall strategic concept" and computed available resources, always proceed to the next step — namely, "the method" Here again there is widespread agreement. A world organization has already been erected for the prime purpose of preventing war. U.N.O., the successor of the League of Nations, with the decisive addition of the United States and all that means, is already at work.

We must make sure that its work is fruitful, that it is a reality and not a sham, that it is a force for action and not merely a frothing of words, that it is a true temple of peace in which the shields of many nations can someday be hung up, and not merely a cockpit in a Tower of Babel.

Before we cast away the solid assurances of national armaments for self-preservation, we must be certain that our temple is built not upon shifting sands or quagmires, but upon the rock. Anyone can see with his eyes open that our path will be difficult and also long, but if we persevere together as we did in the two world wars — though not, alas, in the interval between them — I cannot doubt that we shall achieve our common purpose in the end.

I have, however, a definite and practical proposal to make for action. Courts and magistrates may be set up but they cannot function without sheriffs and constables. The United Nations Organization must immediately begin to be equipped with an international armed force.

In such a matter we can only go step by step, but we must begin now. I propose that each of the powers and states should be invited to dedicate a certain number of air squadrons to the service of the World Organization. These squadrons would be trained and prepared in their own countries but would move around in rotation from one country to another. They would wear the uniform of their own countries but with different badges.

They would not be required to act against their own nation, but in other respects they would be directed by the World Organization. This might be started on a modest scale and would grow as confidence grew. I wished to see this done after the First World War, and I devoutly trust it may be done forthwith.

It would nevertheless be wrong and imprudent to entrust the secret knowledge or experience of the atomic bomb, which the United States, Great Britain, and Canada now share, to the World Organization while it is still in its infancy. It would be criminal madness to cast it adrift in this still agitated and un-united world. No one in any country has slept less well in their beds because this knowledge and the method and the raw materials to apply it are at present largely retained in American hands.

I do not believe we should all have slept so soundly had the positions been reversed and if some Communist or neo-Fascist State monopolized, for the time being, these dread agencies. The fear of them alone might easily have been used to enforce totalitarian systems upon the free democratic world, with consequences appalling to human imagination. God has willed that this shall not be, and we have at least a breathing space to set our house in order before this peril has to be encountered, and even then, if no effort is spared, we should still possess so formidable a superiority as to impose effective deterrents upon its employment, or threat of employment, by others.

Ultimately, when the essential brotherhood of man is truly embodied and expressed in a world organization with all the necessary practical safeguards to make it effective, these powers would naturally be confided to that world organization.

Now I come to the second danger of these two marauders which threatens the cottage home and the ordinary people — namely, tyranny. We cannot be blind to the fact that the liberties enjoyed by individual citizens throughout the British Empire are not valid in a considerable number of countries, some of which are very powerful.

In these States, control is enforced upon the common people by various kinds of all-embracing police governments, to a degree which is overwhelming and contrary to every principle of democracy. The power of the State is exercised without restraint, either by dictators or by compact oligarchies operating through a privileged party and a political police. It is not our duty at this time, when difficulties are so numerous, to interfere forcibly in the internal affairs of countries which we have not conquered in war.

But we must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man, which are the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world and which, through Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, the English Common Law, find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence.

All this means that the people of any country have the right and should have the power by constitutional action, by free unfettered elections with secret ballot, to choose or change the character or form of government under which they dwell; that freedom of speech and thought should reign; that courts of justice, independent of the executive, unbiased by any party, should administer laws which have received the broad assent of large majorities or are consecrated by time and custom. Here are the title deeds of freedom, which should lie in every cottage home. Here is the message of the British and American peoples to mankind. Let us preach what we practice, let us practice what we preach.

I have now stated the two great dangers which menace the homes of the people: War and Tyranny. I have not yet spoken of poverty and privation which are in many cases the prevailing anxiety. But if the dangers of war and tyranny are removed, there is no doubt that science and co-operation can bring in the next few years to the world, certainly in the next few decades newly taught in the sharpening school of war, an expansion of material well-being beyond anything that has yet occurred in human experience.

Now, at this sad and breathless moment, we are plunged in the hunger and distress which are the aftermath of our stupendous struggle; but this will pass and may pass quickly, and there is no reason except human folly or sub-human crime which should deny to all the nations the inauguration and enjoyment of an age of plenty. I have often used words which I learned fifty years ago from a great Irish-American orator, a friend of mine, Mr. Bourke Cockran. "There is enough for all. The earth is a generous mother; she will provide in plentiful abundance food for all her children if they will but cultivate her soil in justice and in peace."

So far I feel that we are in full agreement. Now, while still pursuing the method of realizing our overall strategic concept, I come to the crux of what I have traveled here to say.

Neither the sure prevention of war, nor the continuous rise of world organization will be gained without what I have called the fraternal association of the English-speaking peoples. This means a special relationship between the British Commonwealth and Empire and the United States. This is no time for generalities, and I will venture to be precise.

Fraternal association requires not only the growing friendship and mutual understanding between our two vast but kindred systems of society, but the continuance of the intimate relationship between our military advisers, leading to common study of potential dangers, the similarity of weapons and manuals of instructions, and to the interchange of officers and cadets at technical colleges. It should carry with it the continuance of the present facilities for mutual security by the joint use of all Naval and Air Force bases in the possession of either country all over the world. This would perhaps double the mobility of the American Navy and Air Force.

It would greatly expand that of the British Empire Forces and it might well lead, if and as the world calms down, to important financial savings. Already we use together a large number of islands; more may well be entrusted to our joint care in the near future.

The United States has already a Permanent Defense Agreement with the Dominion of Canada, which is so devotedly attached to the British Commonwealth and Empire. This Agreement is more effective than many of those which have often been made under formal alliances.

This principle should be extended to all British Commonwealths with full reciprocity. Thus, whatever happens, and thus only, shall we be secure ourselves and able to work together for the high and simple causes that are dear to us and bode no ill to any. Eventually there may come — I feel eventually there will come — the principle of common citizenship, but that we may be content to leave to destiny, whose outstretched arm many of us can already clearly see.

There is however an important question we must ask ourselves. Would a special relationship between the United States and the British Commonwealth be inconsistent with our over-riding loyalties to the World Organization? I reply that, on the contrary, it is probably the only means by which that organization will achieve its full stature and strength.

There are already the special United States relations with Canada which I have just mentioned, and there are the relations between the United States and the South American Republics. We British have our Twenty-Years Treaty of Collaboration and Mutual Assistance with Soviet Russia.

I agree with Mr. Bevin, the Foreign Secretary of Great Britain, that it might well be a Fifty-Years Treaty so far as we are concerned. We aim at nothing but mutual assistance and collaboration. The British have an alliance with Portugal unbroken since 1384, and which produced fruitful results at critical moments in the late war. None of these clash with the general interest of a world agreement, or a world organization; on the contrary they help it. "In my father's house are many mansions."

Special associations between members of the United Nations which have no aggressive point against any other country, which harbor no design incompatible with the Charter of the United Nations, far from being harmful, are beneficial and, as I believe, indispensable.

I spoke earlier of the Temple of Peace. Workmen from all countries must build that temple. If two of the workmen know each other particularly well and are old friends, if their families are inter-mingled, and if they have "faith in each other's purpose, hope in each other's future and charity towards each other's shortcomings" — to quote some good words I read here the other day — why cannot they work together at the common task as friends and partners? Why cannot they share their tools and thus increase each other's working powers?

Indeed they must do so or else the temple may not be built, or, being built, it may collapse, and we shall all be proved again unteachable and have to go and try to learn again for a third time in a school of war, incomparably more rigorous than that from which we have just been released.

The dark ages may return, the Stone Age may return on the gleaming wings of science, and what might now shower immeasurable material blessings upon mankind, may even bring about its total destruction.

Beware, I say; time may be short. Do not let us take the course of allowing events to drift along until it is too late.

If there is to be a fraternal association of the kind I have described, with all the extra strength and security which both our countries can derive from it, let us make sure that that great fact is known to the world, and that it plays its part in steadying and stabilizing the foundations of peace. There is the path of wisdom. Prevention is better than cure.

A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied victory. Nobody knows what Soviet Russia and its Communist international organization intends to do in the immediate future, or what are the limits, if any, to their expansive and proselytizing tendencies. I have a strong admiration and regard for the valiant Russian people and for my wartime comrade, Marshal Stalin. There is deep sympathy and goodwill in Britain — and I doubt not here also — towards the peoples of all the Russians and a resolve to persevere through many differences and rebuffs in establishing lasting friendships. We understand the Russian need to be secure on her western frontiers by the removal of all possibility of German aggression.

We welcome Russia to her rightful place among the leading nations of the world. We welcome her flag upon the seas. Above all, we welcome constant, frequent and growing contacts between the Russian people and our own people on both sides of the Atlantic. It is my duty however, for I am sure you would wish me to state the facts as I see them to you, to place before you certain facts about the present position in Europe.

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow.

Athens alone — Greece with its immortal glories — is free to decide its future at an election under British, American and French observation. The Russian-dominated Polish Government has been encouraged to make enormous and wrongful inroads upon Germany, and mass expulsions of millions of Germans on a scale grievous and undreamed-of are now taking place. The Communist parties, which were very small in all these Eastern States of Europe, have been raised to pre-eminence and power far beyond their numbers and are seeking everywhere to obtain totalitarian control.

Police governments are prevailing in nearly every case, and so far, except in Czechoslovakia, there is no true democracy. Turkey and Persia are both profoundly alarmed and disturbed at the claims which are being made upon them and at the pressure being exerted by the Moscow Government. An attempt is being made by the Russians in Berlin to build up a quasi-Communist party in their zone of Occupied Germany by showing special favors to groups of left-wing German leaders.

At the end of the fighting last June, the American and British Armies withdrew westwards, in accordance with an earlier agreement, to a depth at some points of 150 miles upon a front of nearly four hundred miles, in order to allow our Russian allies to occupy this vast expanse of territory which the Western Democracies had conquered.

If now the Soviet Government tries, by separate action, to build up a pro-Communist Germany in their areas, this will cause new serious difficulties in the British and American zones, and will give the defeated Germans the power of putting themselves up to auction between the Soviets and the Western Democracies. Whatever conclusions may be drawn from these facts — and facts they are — this is certainly not the Liberated Europe we fought to build up. Nor is it one which contains the essentials of permanent peace.

The safety of the world requires a new unity in Europe, from which no nation should be permanently outcast. It is from the quarrels of the strong parent races in Europe that the world wars we have witnessed, or which occurred in former times, have sprung.

Twice in our own lifetime we have seen the United States, against their wishes and their traditions, against arguments, the force of which it is impossible not to comprehend, drawn by irresistible forces, into these wars in time to secure the victory of the good cause, but only after frightful slaughter and devastation had occurred.

Twice the United States has had to send several millions of its young men across the Atlantic to find the war; but now war can find any nation, wherever it may dwell between dusk and dawn. Surely we should work with conscious purpose for a grand pacification of Europe, within the structure of the United Nations and in accordance with our Charter. That I feel is an open cause of policy of very great importance.

In front of the iron curtain which lies across Europe are other causes for anxiety. In Italy the Communist Party is seriously hampered by having to support the Communist-trained Marshal Tito's claims to former Italian territory at the head of the Adriatic. Nevertheless the future of Italy hangs in the balance.

Again one cannot imagine a regenerated Europe without a strong France. All my public life I have worked for a strong France and I never lost faith in her destiny, even in the darkest hours. I will not lose faith now. However, in a great number of countries, far from the Russian frontiers and throughout the world, Communist fifth columns are established and work in complete unity and absolute obedience to the directions they receive from the Communist center. Except in the British Commonwealth and in the United States where Communism is in its infancy, the Communist parties or fifth columns constitute a growing challenge and peril to Christian civilization.

These are somber facts for anyone to have to recite on the morrow of a victory gained by so much splendid comradeship in arms and in the cause of freedom and democracy; but we should be most unwise not to face them squarely while time remains.

The outlook is also anxious in the Far East and especially in Manchuria. The Agreement which was made at Yalta, to which I was a party, was extremely favorable to Soviet Russia, but it was made at a time when no one could say that the German war might not extend all through the summer and autumn of 1945 and when the Japanese war was expected to last for a further 18 months from the end of the German war. In this country you are all so well-informed about the Far East, and such devoted friends of China, that I do not need to expatiate on the situation there.

I have felt bound to portray the shadow which, alike in the west and in the east, falls upon the world. I was a minister at the time of the Versailles Treaty and a close friend of Mr. Lloyd-George, who was the head of the British delegation at Versailles. I did not myself agree with many things that were done, but I have a very strong impression in my mind of that situation, and I find it painful to contrast it with that which prevails now. In those days there were high hopes and unbounded confidence that the wars were over, and that the League of Nations would become all-powerful.

I do not see or feel that same confidence or even the same hopes in the haggard world at the present time.

On the other hand I repulse the idea that a new war is inevitable; still more that it is imminent. It is because I am sure that our fortunes are still in our own hands and that we hold the power to save the future, that I feel the duty to speak out now that I have the occasion and the opportunity to do so. I do not believe that Soviet Russia desires war. What they desire is the fruits of war and the indefinite expansion of their power and doctrines.

But what we have to consider here to-day while time remains, is the permanent prevention of war and the establishment of conditions of freedom and democracy as rapidly as possible in all countries. Our difficulties and dangers will not be removed by closing our eyes to them. They will not be removed by mere waiting to see what happens; nor will they be removed by a policy of appeasement. What is needed is a settlement, and the longer this is delayed, the more difficult it will be and the greater our dangers will become.

From what I have seen of our Russian friends and Allies during the war, I am convinced that there is nothing they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for weakness, especially military weakness. For that reason the old doctrine of a balance of power is unsound. We cannot afford, if we can help it, to work on narrow margins, offering temptations to a trial of strength. If the Western Democracies stand together in strict adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter, their influence for furthering those principles will be immense and no one is likely to molest them.

If however they become divided or falter in their duty and if these all-important years are allowed to slip away then indeed catastrophe may overwhelm us all.

Last time I saw it all coming and cried aloud to my own fellow-countrymen and to the world, but no one paid any attention. Up till the year 1933 or even 1935, Germany might have been saved from the awful fate which has overtaken her and we might all have been spared the miseries Hitler let loose upon mankind.

There never was a war in history easier to prevent by timely action than the one which has just desolated such great areas of the globe. It could have been prevented in my belief without the firing of a single shot, and Germany might be powerful, prosperous and honored to-day; but no one would listen and one by one we were all sucked into the awful whirlpool. We surely must not let that happen again.

This can only be achieved by reaching now, in 1946, a good understanding on all points with Russia under the general authority of the United Nations Organization and by the maintenance of that good understanding through many peaceful years, by the world instrument, supported by the whole strength of the English-speaking world and all its connections. There is the solution which I respectfully offer to you in this Address to which I have given the title "The Sinews of Peace."

Let no man underrate the abiding power of the British Empire and Commonwealth. Because you see the 46 millions in our island harassed about their food supply, of which they only grow one half, even in war-time, or because we have difficulty in restarting our industries and export trade after six years of passionate war effort, do not suppose that we shall not come through these dark years of privation as we have come through the glorious years of agony, or that half a century from now, you will not see 70 or 80 millions of Britons spread about the world, united in defense of our traditions, our way of life, and of the world causes which you and we espouse.

If the population of the English-speaking Commonwealths be added to that of the United States with all that such co-operation implies in the air, on the sea, all over the globe and in science and in industry, and in moral force, there will be no quivering, precarious balance of power to offer its temptation to ambition or adventure. On the contrary, there will be an overwhelming assurance of security.

If we adhere faithfully to the Charter of the United Nations and walk forward in sedate and sober strength seeking no one's land or treasure, seeking to lay no arbitrary control upon the thoughts of men; if all British moral and material forces and convictions are joined with your own in fraternal association, the high-roads of the future will be clear, not only for us but for all, not only for our time, but for a century to come.

Winston Churchill

5 March 1946

Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri]